The paramedic who saved the life of a teenager remembers how they saved his own father

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – When Honolulu EMS paramedic Trevor Fujisaka showed up for work last August, he had no idea he would be saving lives that day.

Dustin Kealoha, 17, was swimming on the Kamehameha school campus when he suddenly went into cardiac arrest.

Fujisaka says an AED (automated external defibrillator) and CPR were performed on Dustin before he got there.

“Of course, it was a lot more pressure, but deep down I have a lot of emotions running through me because I don’t want to see a young man die,” Fujisaka recalls.

What Fujisaka didn’t know at the time was that Dustin’s twin sister, Tehani, had died just three months earlier under similar circumstances.

Neither Dustin nor Tehani had any known medical conditions at the time, and they were both swimming when they went into cardiac arrest.

Tehani couldn’t do it, and for Dustin it was a no-brainer.

“After we got his heart back at the pool, I still had to get his airway open, and then when we found him, we were just leaving the school, we lost a pulse again, and we resumed CPR. “Fujisaka said.

Twins mom Jamie Kealoha says she believes Fujisaka was the one who turned things around and never gave up until Dustin was stabilized.

“There are no words for what he’s given to us, especially after losing our daughter, it’s like you’re never prepared to lose a child and then almost lose a second one…we can’t thank him enough,” Jamie said as she broke down in tears.

Now a little over a year has passed. Dustin just started college at Dartmouth University.

“I told him that at the dinner I told him that he better stay home, he better stay in school, chase his dreams and pursue his passions, and never give up on any of that,” Trevor said.

“It gave him a second chance to achieve his dream, you know?” – said Jamie.

An extraordinary gift that Fujisaki says he is giving back because when he was in second grade, he remembers paramedics helping his own father, and it helped inspire the then 7-year-old boy to enter the field today.

” Why I started doing this and I think every healthcare professional has this. Why they got into this area,” he said. “So, going back to that day when my father passed out, it gave me a piece of hope and now it’s happening all over again, knowing that I was able to give hope to the mother and the family that their baby will be okay and we’re doing everything we can, to help them.”

And for saving Dustin’s life, paramedic Trevor Fujisaka became their healthcare hero.