FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (AP) - The first time the two nurses laid eyes on Jonathan Starkey, his face was bluish-purple from a lack of oxygen.
The last time they saw him_at an event honoring them for saving his life_Jonathan once again was cloaked in blue. The 8-year-old had dressed for the occasion in a royal blue shirt and blue plaid tie, black pants and shiny black shoes.
After he reached for those who literally breathed life back into his body, the boy gave the understatement of the year.
“I’d say they’re very nice,” Jonathan said.
About 100 people gathered in the atrium of Mary Washington Hospital in Fredericksburg on Oct. 4 to heap accolades upon Jessica Mountjoy and Kathy Wirtz. Both are registered nurses in the hospital’s cardiac catheterization lab and had no idea that all the people in suits and scrubs had assembled on their behalf.
Until the applause started.
And Jonathan stepped forward to embrace them both in a group hug.
“I don’t even know what to say,” Mountjoy said, as she stepped up to the podium. “I am so happy to see that little face right there. He means a lot to us. I don’t think he knows what he means to us.”
Jonathan’s loved ones certainly seemed to grasp how important the nurses were to them.
“We’re blessed that he’s still here,” said Jonathan’s mother, Shannon Adams. “Jesse and Kathy will always be special to us.”
His stepmother, Ashley Starkey, added: “Everybody should know what they did.”
Almost a month to the day earlier, Jonathan had been part of a “guys’ trip” with his dad, Steve Starkey, and step-grandpa to Busco Beach and ATV Park in Goldsboro, N.C. The facility is about 230 miles south of Fredericksburg and features more than 2,000 acres of water holes and hills for camping and riding.
It was the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, and the nurses, whose families go places together, weren’t even supposed to be at Busco until Sunday. Mountjoy’s husband, Rocky, knows Jonathan’s dad, but Wirtz’s husband, Kevin, said Rocky is the kind of guy who always knows somebody, almost everywhere they go.
The two families had come to Busco a day earlier than they planned and had been riding for several hours when they noticed some commotion.
Jonathan was riding a utility terrain vehicle side-by-side, a model that looks sort of like a dune buggy, into the muddy waters of the man-made pond. He was wearing a helmet and a four-point seat-belt harness and sitting beside the driver.
The UTV got too far to one side and started to sink, the dad said. The driver was able to undo his seat belt, and Jonathan took off his helmet, but couldn’t unsnap the seat belt.
“I remember closing my eyes and holding my breath and going under the water,” Jonathan said.
Adults struggled to pull the vehicle out of the mire and get Jonathan free. The vehicle never turned over, but sat upright the whole time.
The murky water didn’t help with the rescue, and his dad estimates Jonathan was submerged at least 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, the nurses knew they would be needed and were ready. As soon as Jonathan’s body was pulled from the UTV_with his face the awful color of bluish purple_they started cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Mountjoy did the compressions and Wirtz gave him quick breaths.
Wirtz had no sense of how long CPR lasted. Was it 10 minutes? Twenty? She couldn’t say.
In the midst of the crowd and the commotion around her, she tuned out everything but her CPR partner and the little boy on the ground in front of them.
“All I could hear was Jesse’s voice,” Wirtz said.
Jonathan’s dad guessed it took about 2 minutes before his son started to cough and gurgle. When Jonathan got loaded on the stretcher and told the nurses he was scared, they were thrilled that he was alert enough to realize what was happening.
Jonathan ended up in the intensive care unit of Children’s Hospital of Greenville for two nights. He wasn’t too happy the first night, when he couldn’t eat or drink because there was still fluid in his lungs. But by the second night, when tests showed he suffered no damage, he was able to have both. He said the hospital cheeseburger tasted especially good.
When he got home to his mother, he asked if he could take a bath.
“I was putting my head under like nothing even happened,” Jonathan said.
His mother wasn’t quite so calm. She asked Jonathan’s stepfather, John Adams, to sit in the room with him. “I was freaking out,” she said.
Jonathan divides his time between his mother and stepfather in Orange County, where he’s a third-grader at Locust Grove Elementary School, and his father and stepmother in King George County. He’s the oldest of seven children, between the two families.
The incident didn’t leave too many scars. Jonathan’s already been back in the saddle to race dirt bikes, though he isn’t sure if he’ll ride a vehicle into deep water again.
Meanwhile, co-workers of nurses Mountjoy and Wirtz sang their praises and showered them with plaques, pins and flower bouquets. Sharon Allen, the American Heart Association program manager at the hospital, bestowed the Heartsaver Award upon them. It’s given to those who save lives by performing CPR.
Michael McDermott, the hospital’s chief executive officer, said the nurses’ skills and actions contributed to a miracle_along with them being where they were needed a day earlier than they had planned to arrive.
“This story is one I don’t think any of us will ever forget,” McDermott said. “I don’t know if they get any more inspirational than this.”
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Information from: The Free Lance-Star, https://www.fredericksburg.com/
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