FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact Kris Berg (800) 363-9127 ext. 116 kris.berg@emergencydispatch.org

Lisa Kalmbach said she always wanted to “thank the Academy” for an award, and in April she had her chance to do just that.    Granted, the award she accepted wasn’t from the motion picture industry, but Kalmbach is still every bit a star, especially to the parents of a 16-year-old son her attention to the Medical Priority Dispatch System® (MPDS) protocol helped save.    “We wake up every morning and thank God that I got a hold of Lisa,” said Rob Purinton, who’s son Jason was knocked unconscious from a lightning strike while the two were finishing up a landscaping job late afternoon in the Ellenton suburb of Palmetto, Fla. “Nobody is promised tomorrow.”    Kalmbach, a dispatcher at the Manatee County Emergency Communications Center in Bradenton, Fla., received the 2007 Dispatcher of the Year award from the National Academies of Emergency Dispatch (NAED) at the annual Navigator conference held April 24-26 in Las Vegas. The award recognizes the NAED certified dispatcher who has made the most significant contributions to further the values and mission of the Academies through personal action, which includes expertise in accurately following protocol when used in an extraordinary situation.    On July 13, 2006, Kalmback proved just that when she took the call from a frightened and anxious father. “Jason was trying hard to breathe,” explained Kalmbach, who could hear the labored breathing in a background of continued thunder and the static from Rob’s cell phone. “His body was trying to let him breathe and he was in serious trouble.”    Once Kalmbach assured Rob that responders were enroute, she knew he was ready to follow the Academy’s EMD instructions for administering CPR. The call made from a cell phone complicated following the CPR steps but, as luck would have it, Rob was able to hand the phone to a waste-management worker who had come over to help and he then relayed Kalmbach’s instructions to Rob. Within three sets of chest compressions and ventilations, Jason was breathing on his own. I was relieved,” said the all-too-modest Kalmbach.    Records show that an ambulance and a fire truck were dispatched within six seconds of the 9-1-1 call and arrived about seven minutes later. Jason, who was taken to Manatee Memorial Hospital and, later, to the pediatric intensive care unit at Tampa General Hospital, survived; he is now healthy, and without permanent injury.    Kalmbach said taking the call, which lasted more than 13 minutes, and following the protocol are all part of the profession. “I was doing my job that day, and it’s a job that I love very much,” she said.    TriTech Software Systems in California sponsors the annual award. The National Academy can be reached at www.emergencydispatch.org or 800-960-6236.