A man's heart stops on vacation in remote Utah. Now he's raising money for EMTs

Ron Baker flatlined after a heart attack. Minutes later, volunteer emergency medical technicians from a remote area in Millard County revived him.

Now, he's created a fundraiser to provide clinicians in remote areas with better medical equipment.

On June 19, the Bothell, Washington, native was vacationing in a remote area in Millard County to participate in a fossil-digging activity with his wife, Fay Lim Baker. After four hours of intense digging, Baker got back in his truck to start driving.

That was when he started feeling intense pain in his chest — so intense, he said, that he had to have his wife drive.

However, the area was remote enough that he didn't have the service to call 911. Eventually, Baker said he was able to get ahold of emergency services and have a sheriff escort their truck until an ambulance arrived.

After his wife pulled over, Baker was guided into the ambulance — where he lost consciousness a few minutes later, he said.

Baker was told that he flatlined and had to receive two different electric shocks to get his heart restarted. After he was stabilized at Delta Community Hospital, he said he was told he had to be flown to a hospital in Provo.

Eight hours later, he awoke at Utah Valley Hospital.

"Everybody that came in — from the doctors, the nurses, you name it — they all said, 'You are one lucky son of a gun,'" Baker said.

The northwesterner said he gets emotional whenever he thought about the volunteers who saved his life, especially the emergency medical technicians who worked in Millard County.

"These people are flipping amazing at what they do — and they're volunteers, and that's what really tugs at my heart, so to speak. Sorry about the pun," Baker chuckled. "And I told them, 'We got to do something for these folks.'"

Because the Millard area is so remote, Baker said, survival rates might be lower, especially for victims or patients who can't get cell service or medical attention right away.

"When we go out to the desert, like where he was where it started, we're at least, I don't know, like sometimes we're an hour, an hour and 20 minutes away. And if you only have two people doing CPR for over that amount of time, they're exhausted and they're a depleted source," said Cherish Works, a volunteer ambulance driver in Millard County. "But if we have this machine that could be doing the accurate compressions constantly, it frees us up to do the airways and push meds."

To help the county's volunteer medical service, Baker started a GoFundMe* page on Aug. 7, to raise money for a CPR machine — a device that would mechanically pump patients' hearts during ambulance rides and other critical moments when it may be difficult for EMTs to physically perform CPR.

Already, the GoFundMe* has raised nearly $3,000.

"A lot of the calls we go on are somebody having chest pains or trouble breathing, and a lot of those calls could be related to a heart attack. So it would serve our community, just — it helps just knowing we had it," Works said. "It would just it would take a lot of pressure off of us, the ones that are volunteering."

In an effort for Millard County's volunteer EMTs to receive more support, Works said she plans to run a fundraising event for the remote working volunteers. The event will take place on Aug. 23, where Utahns can participate in a silent auction, enjoy snacks from food trucks, listen to live music and make donations to the county's medical workers, she said.

Baker also encouraged Utahns to get involved in helping rural communities raise money to support their local EMT programs — whether that be through raising awareness of traveling in remote desert areas or participating in funding efforts.

"These folks, they work for free. They're volunteers," Baker said. "Maybe they're not getting the funding for all the fancy equipment that you may see in a big city, and so anything that we can do to benefit them, if it benefits one person … that's a big win."

*KSL.com does not assure that the money deposited to the account will be applied for the benefit of the persons named as beneficiaries. If you are considering a deposit to the account, you should consult your own advisers and otherwise proceed at your own risk.