FORT PIERCE — Jonathan Birth stood frozen in shock last Tuesday when his Indian River State College paramedic instructor’s story started sounding eerily familiar.

That memory of a flash fire that burned almost the entire body of an 8-year-old in August 1991 has stuck with instructor C.C. Watrous for almost 20 years. She always hoped her crew reacted the right way, but it’s always been the nature of being first responders not to know how their patients turn out.

Likewise, Watrous, an instructor with Emergency Medical Consultants in Port St. Lucie, never knew what happened to that little boy.

Hearing her recollection, Birth had to lean against the wall to stay upright.

For the first time in 19 years, Birth knew he was face-to-face with a paramedic who helped save his life.

“I remembered my heart started pounding, I got numb, I got chills,” said Birth, 27, of Port St. Lucie. “I had to lean up against the wall. ‘Wow, she really is talking about me.’”

The rescue inspired him to enter the same paramedic field, to help people the way he was helped.

But neither Birth nor Watrous thought they’d ever cross paths again, let alone in a classroom.

“All I wanted was a hug. I wanted to hug him, I wanted to hold him,” Watrous said. “He’s alive. He’s well. He’s well adjusted, responsible — what more could you want?”

Watrous, who was teaching a two-day trauma course, started describing to the class the boy who nearly burned to death 19 years ago in Palm Beach Gardens.

Sounds familiar, Birth thought.

The day of the accident, his dad was working on diving equipment at his office. An open gas container sat nearby while he was fixing a machine. When the machine’s engine clicked on, the gas flashed up and flames caught onto Birth’s shorts.

He stopped, dropped and rolled to put it out, but the quick flash had already done its damage.

Birth’s father was holding him, both trembling vigorously in a shower inside when medics arrived at the building. Watrous, then working with Intercity EMS, couldn’t even grab the boy because he didn’t have enough skin left to grasp. He was 75 percent covered in third-degree burns.

“That’s generally not a survivable incident,” said Watrous, 56, of Port St. Lucie. “Whatever inner strength that child has — determination, tenacity — it’s incredible.”

He was taken to St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach and transferred to hospitals in Miami and Chicago. His family visited the EMS station a few times afterward, but Watrous hadn’t heard from them since.

“That bonded those people involved with that call forever,” Watrous said. “You have calls that you just close your eyes, and it’s a rewind of a video you can’t turn off.”

His face, torso, arms and legs still bore 19-year-old burn scars when Birth approached Watrous after her story.

With a quiet, wry smile, he said, “I’m that kid.”

Birth, a 2001 St. Lucie West Centennial graduate and an accredited firefighter/EMT, will finish paramedic school in November. His younger sister Alexia, 22, already took inspiration from his experience and joined St. Lucie Fire Rescue after high school.

As fortune would have it, Birth’s wife of a year and a half is a nurse, and her father is a firefighter.

Watrous caught up with the rest of the six-member rescue crew from that fire right after that class. Immediately, all of them remembered Birth’s case, and just as quickly, they wanted to meet him, too. They’re planning a reunion within the next week or two.

“He’s going to do very well, and he’ll have that extra sense of safety and concern for others,” Watrous said. “Once you’ve lived through one of those events, that becomes your experience to share.”

Jonathan Mattis, TCPalm.com

Tags: boy, burn victim, classroom, emergency, firefighter, Palm Beach Gardens, paramedic, teacher, training

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