Personal Connections Show How CPR Class Bore Fruit

According to Atrium Health Floyd EMS Lt. Dusty Johnson, his friend and teammate Ben Fleming is possibly the hardest-working person he has ever known. When Ben wasn’t staffing an Atrium Health Floyd ambulance or preparing it for its next call, he was working somewhere else, cleaning for someone else or pressure-washing something.

In the two years he has worked at EMS, Ben has become a staple there, Dusty said.

What Dusty could never have known is that one of his CPR students would one day use his training to possibly save the life of his teammate, but it did.

Andrea Mendence, who oversees athletic training for Atrium Health Floyd, couldn’t have known that organizing a CPR training class at Berry College would one day save the life of an EMS teammate, but it did.

Todd Fleming is Ben’s dad. He was aware of the components of CPR but was not certified. He couldn’t have known that taking a CPR class organized and taught by Atrium Health Floyd at Berry College would one day save the life of his son, but it did.

Ben is an Atrium Health Floyd paramedic based in Trion. He had begun having some health problems a year ago. Several doctor visits and hospitalizations had resulted in no answers. His physicians suggested he try using a CPAP machine to help him breathe and rest at night, but he couldn’t. The mask’s strap caused excruciating pain in his head.

On Aug. 11, 2024, Ben went to work, still having medical issues, but none that prevented him from working that day. A teammate met him at his truck to move some items into the ambulance he’d be staffing for his shift. As he stepped out of his truck, he collapsed. He would have hit the ground had his co-worker not caught him.

That incident was the beginning of a long and challenging medical journey for Ben and his family. Doctors detected cerebral spinal fluid accumulating in his brain and planned to install a shunt to remove the pressure. He was hospitalized waiting for that procedure when he asked his dad to help him sit up on the side of his hospital bed. He was weak, unsteady and fell back onto the bed. His condition quickly deteriorated.

His dad remembers that it was 7:20 a.m., Aug. 13, 2024. Ben began to moan and groan. He asked his father, “Daddy, help me.” Todd said the sounds coming from his son’s body were unlike anything he had ever heard. He asked his son if he was okay. There was no answer. He was gray, his eyes unfocused. Todd recognized his son was in cardiac arrest.

After summoning a nurse, Todd started chest compressions, pressing hard on his son’s sternum, just as Dusty Johnson had taught him and just as he had practiced on the mannequin that day at Berry College. A rapid response team was in the room by the time he finished his first 30 compressions and took over. Ben’s pulse returned.

Though no one will ever know whether that round of CPR saved Ben’s life, it’s certain that his father’s efforts kept oxygenated blood flowing to his son’s brain.

Almost six months later, Ben remains hospitalized. He has been diagnosed with neurosarcoidosis, an extremely rare condition that causes an inflammatory response in the brain and spinal cord. Only one in 25.5 million people are diagnosed with the condition.

Neither Dusty nor Andrea would have known about their contributions to Ben’s story had Dusty not visited Ben in the hospital recently. Todd recognized Dusty. “Hey, I know you!” he said. Todd explained the CPR lessons he had learned from Dusty could well have saved Ben’s life. Later that day, Dusty emailed Andrea to let her know the excellent program she had organized had resulted in an amazing, full-circle moment.

On the day that Todd shared his son’s story, he had to excuse himself for a moment. Trucks were pulling into his driveway. It was Ben’s Atrium Health Floyd EMS teammates. They arrived with lumber to build a ramp in anticipation of Ben’s homecoming.

Todd is grateful for those Atrium Health Floyd teammates. He’s grateful for the class Andrea organized, the students Dusty taught and the medical expertise that walks our halls every day. He says he will never forget that day – the first and only time he’s ever had to administer CPR. “My son says, ‘Daddy, help me,’ and with no hesitation, I help. I still dream about it.”