Man meets Buckeye Fire crew who saved his life during major heart attack

BUCKEYE, Ariz. - A meaningful reunion happened on Feb. 23 when a Buckeye man got to meet the fire crew who saved his life after he suffered a major heart attack.

Ricky Preciado had already been down 10 minutes by the time fire crews arrived. They conducted life-saving measures on Preciado, but they're calling his survival a miracle.

"I am very happy to see them. I am very grateful for each and every one of them," Preciado said.

The men he's talking about are with Buckeye Fire Department's Engine Crew 703. They arrived to Preciado’s home on a December night as he was having a heart attack.

It started when his wife Jessica noticed he was making sounds while sleeping and wasn't responding to her.

"I decided to take a deep breath of air and put it in his lungs and ran and got my daughter and she tried to wake him too," she said. They soon called 911 as Jessica performed CPR.

By the time crews showed up though, he had already been down for 10 minutes with no pulse or breath.

The crews performed life-saving measures and by the time he was on the way to the hospital, he finally regained a pulse.

"Pretty awesome miracle. I hate to use that word. Cliche right? But if you are down that time with no heartbeat no pulse, it is a miracle, right?" said Mark Andrade, engineer paramedic with Buckeye Fire Department.

Preciado spent seven days in the hospital and even the doctors could not believe he had survived.

"No really answer as to why it happened. Just that it happens in a small percentage and I am very lucky to be alive," he said.

Preciado and his family are so thankful he gets another chance at life and they say it is all thanks to Engine Crew 703.