This Windsor woman collapsed in her living room. She finally got a chance to thank paramedics who saved her

One moment, Cherry Tolentino was pumping up an air mattress in her living room. The next, she wasn't breathing.

Her family called 911 on Oct. 21, 2022, after Tolentino collapsed in her living room. When paramedics arrived, Tolentino was sprawled on the floor, blue in the face. 

The next thing Tolentino remembers, the 43-year-old Windsor woman was waking up at Windsor Regional Hospital intensive care unit surrounded by nurses and her own sister, also a nurse.

Tolentino was told she had suffered from cardiac arrest after a blood clot in her lung. She would remain in hospital for a month. 

Tolentino got a chance to thank the paramedics who saved her life at the Essex-Windsor EMS's annual Survivor Day on Friday. 

"After I went out from the ICU, I was thinking, 'How can I connect with these people?" Tolentino said. "When I received the letter from the EMS inviting me to Survivor Day I was like, 'wow, this is the chance.'

"I was very thankful and also emotional because they're the ones who were there at a very critical time of my life."

It took her two months after her cardiac arrest, with the help of physiotherapists, to learn how to walk again. But today she's alive and well, thanking God and paramedics for the second chance. 

Survivor Day is an annual event for Essex Windsor EMS, and one of the few chances paramedics have to reconnect with their patients. 

"Usually we drop the patients off and we often don't hear very much. There's privacy acts in Ontario… which is important obviously for patients," said Adrien Bezaire, an advanced care paramedic with Essex Windsor EMS and one of the paramedics who saved Tolentino. 

"As a provider sometimes it can be disappointing because you want to know what happened to those people."

Bezaire said he remembers that night. It was after midnight. It had been busy, and they were all tired. Tolentino stood out to him because she was so young. He remembered her frantic family and the scared looks on their faces. 

"When we met Cherry the first time, she was unresponsive. She was blue. She was very sick," Bezaire said. "It was nice to see her awake and walking and talking and and well, and to meet her family as well."

"To see her now, kind of on the other side of it after a long recovery, it's great news because as we know restoring a pulse outside the hospital is just the first part of` the journey. It's great to see her doing well and to be living a normal meaningful life."

Friday marked the 11th annual Survivor Day, and included stories from 25 survivors and more than 100 paramedics, firefighters ambulance operators and police officers who helped save a life.

For Essex-Windsor EMS Chief Krauter, Friday was the last Survivor's Day of his career as he prepares to retire in February 2024. It "opens the floodgates" to see survivors doing well, he said. 

"I've been in the trenches …I know what it feels like to drop a patient off and not know the outcome," he said. "To see the good stories and actually see the families, the survivors, the little children, the grandchildren. 

"It just means so much."

Today, Tolentino is still recovering with physical therapy and the help of her family, especially her four kids. 

"Thank you so much … you guys are great, Tolentino said to paramedics. "Continue what you're doing. You're such a big help to the community. You're the heroes."