'Another chance to live': Derry teen thanks firefighters who saved his life

this article appeared in the Eagle Tribune on May 4, 2008 and was written by John Basilesco
Staff writer

DERRY — Ken Jarvis's family didn't know if he would ever walk again after a drug overdose put the 18-year-old in a coma for 3-1/2 weeks.

Yesterday, the Derry teen, who suffered brain damage from a lack of oxygen during the overdose, slowly walked into the Derry Fire Department's Central Station, with family members by his side, to thank the firefighters who saved his life on the morning of March 22. That day, when his mother went to wake him for school, she saw white foam coming out of his nose and mouth, and called 911.

Jarvis had overdosed on a combination of methadone, OxyContin and liquid percocet. He had also been drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana.

When firefighters arrived, he was having trouble breathing and wasn't getting enough oxygen, so they inserted an air tube in his throat and manually pumped in oxygen to keep him alive while they transported him to the hospital. He was taken to Parkland Medical Center in Derry and then airlifted to Boston Medical Center, where he remained in a coma for three weeks and three days. Since April 17, Jarvis has been recovering at the Crotched Mountain Rehabilitation Center in Greenfield.

Yesterday, at his request, his mother, Colleen Whitney-Jarvis, picked him up at Crotched Mountain and drove him to the Derry Fire Department.

"The firefighters saved his life." she said. "The Derry Fire Department gave my son another chance to live. That and God gave him a second chance."

Jarvis said he's going to make the most of his second chance, which means staying off drugs. He said he has been attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and seeing a drug and alcohol abuse therapist. He still faces months, maybe years, of physical rehabilitation if he is to be able to live on his own

At his reunion yesterday, he gave each of the firefighters a bear hug for saving him. They included Capt. Scott Haggart, and firefighters Jim Moran, Ed King, Tom Small and Steve Auger.

They talked about his ordeal, and posed together for photographs taken by members of Jarvis's family.

Jarvis told the firefighters he is feeling better, but still isn't 100 percent yet.

"If you've never seen a miracle, you're looking at one," Jarvis's grandfather Kenneth Whitney said.

Only a handful of fire departments in the state can perform the procedure that helped save Jarvis' life, Battalion Chief Jack Webb said. It involves administering medication similar to anesthesia and then inserting an air tube to boost the patient's oxygen level to normal. The procedure is used for victims of drug overdoses, head injuries, strokes, certain heart attacks, and other traumatic injuries, he said.

Whitney-Jarvis said the last month and a half have been difficult for her son and the entire family.

"They said he was in a vegetative state and would never walk again," she said. "They would sit him on the edge of the bed, and he would tell me, 'I can't walk, Mom.'

"I told him, 'You're going to walk.' He's walking now, but it's all through a lot of family support and his physical therapist at Crotched Mountain."

Whitney-Jarvis said her son, who was a student at Pinkerton Academy, may live in a facility in North Conway, where he can continue learning to become independent again while attending a local high school there.

The oxygen deprivation Jarvis suffered during his overdose means he will always have disabilities, his mother said.

"He'll always be a person with disabilities and he can accept that," Whitney-Jarvis said. "He's doing everything he can to be as independent as he can."