George Ma’Ayteh, a retired Chicago fire department lieutenant with Engine 109, hugs fire communications operator Amanda Garr during a news conference at the Office of Emergency Management and Communications on Wednesday. Garr was the 911 operator who taught Paula Anast, Ma’Ayteh’s friend, how to do chest compressions on the phone when Ma’Ayteh suffered a cardiac event.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Amanda Garr often doesn’t know the outcome of the 911 calls she takes from frantic Chicagoans, but on Wednesday morning she met George Ma’Ayteh — a retired firefighter whose life she helped save.
Last fall, Garr, a city fire communications operator, accepted a call for an adult male who was unconscious and “wasn’t breathing normally.”
Garr quickly notified a dispatcher to send an ambulance before calmly instructing the caller how to perform CPR on Ma’Ayteh.
“God’s got a plan for you,” Garr told Ma’Ayteh on Wednesday, shortly after they met for the first time.
Ma’Ayteh worked as a Chicago firefighter for 30 years and saw firsthand the difference CPR makes when trying to save a life.
“I can’t tell you how many resuscitations [where] the outcome is never well,” Ma’Ayteh told reporters. “God was working through their hands.”
Garr, 29, credits her training and love for the job with the Office of Emergency Management and Communications, when speaking about how she helped save Ma’Ayteh’s life.
“I just love helping people,” she told reporters at the Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications. “I know that when people call 911, they’re not calling because they’re having a good day. My hope is to be able to be there and help make that a little bit easier.”
On Oct. 21, 2023, when Garr took the call, she walked Paula Anast, a lifelong friend of Ma’Ayteh, through CPR.
“I truly wouldn’t have had any idea what to do,” Anast said. “This is what she does as a job, and her confidence calmed me.”
Garr credited Anast’s ability to follow instructions, highlighting how they worked together to help save Ma’Ayteh’s life.
“Giving those instructions over the phone, it’s second nature to me at this point. It’s really nice though to have people that actually listen and can do a really great job and work with me with this team effort.”
George Ma’Ayteh, a retired Chicago fire department lieutenant with Engine 109 stands with his friend Paula Anast who helped save his life during a news conference at the Office of Emergency Management and Communications on the Near West Side, Wednesday, April 17, 2024. Fire Communications Operator 1 Amanda Garr was the 911 operator who taught Anast how to do chest compressions on the phone when Ma’Ayteh suffered a cardiac arrest in October 2023.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
In a sense, Garr was born to the job. Her family has served Chicagoans for four generations. Her great grandfather, grandfather, father and uncles all worked with the fire department as firefighters, paramedics or through the Office of Emergency Management and Communications.
Coincidentally, Ma’Ayteh served under Garr’s father, 14th Battalion Chief Barry Garr — who attended Wednesday’s event.
“Pride, that’s what I feel, both for her job and what she’s done for the community,” the battalion chief said about his daughter’s efforts. “This is just one of many accolades I see in her future.”
Amanda Garr will receive a commendation from the Office of Emergency Management and Communications at an awards ceremony Thursday for “her outstanding lifesaving CPR efforts and a job well done.”
Her father stressed the importance of intervention during medical emergencies and the difference it can make.
“People don’t have to be afraid to get involved and assist others now,” Battalion Chief Barry Garr said. “[Ma’Ayteh] was said to possibly have had brain damage due to the fact the blood was not circulating, but because of [Garr’s and Anast’s] actions, the blood was able to circulate … and he stands before us with no diminishing capacities whatsoever.”
Doctors told Ma’Ayteh he suffered cardiac arrest and he had a pacemaker implanted afterwards. He’s in rehabilitation months after his health scare, but says he’s “doing good.”
“God was resting on your shoulders,” he told Amanda Garr. “Someone told me Heaven was closed.”