Grand Rapids, MI -- It was a routine call. The kind 55 year old Grand Rapids firefighter Joe Paiz had answered a thousand times or better during his 28 year career.
Someone smelled smoke in a downtown office building.
Paiz was acting officer aboard Squad One that day.
But as he stepped off his rig, that routine call turned into the fight of his life.
"I remember getting off the squad, walking and... that's it. From then on, I don't remember nothing else." says Paiz.
A heart attack sent Paiz to the ground.
In medical terms, he was dead. The seriousness of his condition was written on the face of his fellow firefighters.
But Paiz had a few things going for him that morning.
His faith was one.
Another was his brother firefighters, who started CPR immediately.
But the most important, says Paiz, was the AED carried on the Squad.
"Without the AED? It shocked me just at the right time," said Paiz, as he sits in his hospital room in the cardiac care unit at Spectrum Hospital's Butterworth Campus, getting ready to go home.
CPR along with the administration of the AED not only kept Paiz heart going, but Paiz says his doctor told him the quick action probably prevented serious damage to his heart.
AED's or automated external defibrillators have been standard equipment on Grand Rapids fire apparatus since 1992.
The computerized units read a person's heart rhythm, automatically sending an electronic shock when that rhythm is off, like during a heart attack.
Last Monday was the first time Grand Rapids firefighters used an AED on one of their own.
"One shock it took...Here I am" said Paiz.
In recent years, the units have been slowly showing up in more public places, like offices buildings and shopping malls.
Groups like the American Heart Association have been pushing to make them even more accessible.
Now, add Joe Paiz's voice to that chorus.
"They told me I had a heart attack. And I'm still here. It's amazing! "