Jessica Ream is an Albemarle County elementary school teacher. She and her husband are expecting a daughter later this year. She said she is forever grateful to the volunteer firefighters who saved her life. (Photo by Erin Edgerton, University Communications)
Jessica Ream experienced a lot between June 12, 2021, and June 12, 2022.
On that first date, she married her high school sweetheart. Exactly one year later, she was clinically dead for six minutes.
Ream hadn’t been feeling herself in June of 2022. The elementary school teacher, 26 at that time, told colleagues she felt like her heart was “beating out of my chest.”
Two days later, her one-year wedding anniversary, Jessica returned to her townhome after a Sunday grocery run. Feeling faint and oddly tired, she took a seat at her dining room table with a snack of fruit and cheese, hoping the protein would help. Her husband, Damien, sat across the carpeted room, watching an episode of “The Great British Baking Show.”
Jessica considered how bad she was feeling, but didn’t want to alarm her husband.
“I knew that it was serious, but I had no idea that I was about to die,” she recalled. “Then I felt myself passing out and got myself down to the floor and immediately lost consciousness.”
Damien called 911 and administered CPR. Two or three minutes later, a volunteer crew from the Seminole Trail Volunteer Fire Department arrived, led by University of Virginia graduate Tayah Mack.
They got to work.
Volunteer firefighters Jones, Sasha Lawrence, Mannix Green and Tayah Mack in one of the bays at the Seminole Trail Volunteer Fire Department. (Photo by Erin Edgerton, University Communications)
“I approach all cardiac arrests pretty much the same. Very methodical. My first focus is obviously directing my team, so that we can give the most effective care possible and be the most efficient,” Mack said. “That being said, there was a bit of a mental challenge to get over after seeing how young my patient was.”
The crew treated Ream with an AED, shorthand for an automated external defibrillator, and a shot of epinephrine before rushing her to UVA Health. The American Heart Association says it was those steps, in rapid fire, that saved Ream’s life. Only one in 10 people in that situation survive.
A Lifesaving Partnership
“We run an average of 3,000 calls a year, which is the highest in the county,” said Mannix Green, another volunteer firefighter at Seminole Trail Volunteer Fire Department who will graduate from UVA in the spring with a degree in aerospace engineering.
The fire department has three full-time firefighters. Another 100 volunteers fill out the department. About 85% of those people are current or former UVA students.
“Fire definitely has my heart,” Green said of his devotion to firefighting. (Photo by Erin Edgerton, University Communications)
Henry Nixon, a 2021 graduate, has been with Seminole Trail for seven years and is now a captain of one of the crews. As a volunteer, he coordinates the volunteer membership. He said there is never a dull moment.
“If you’re getting bored here, you’re doing something wrong,” he said. The shifts when there are no calls “are the worst,” he said. “We will train ’til we are dead tired. There’s always something to learn, something to do, always something to clean, always someone to teach.”
Every evening about 5:30 p.m., the station bustles as mostly UVA volunteers begin arriving for their 12-hour overnight shifts, which run from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. Some go to the kitchen to make the nightly dinner, while others stream in to welcoming backslaps and hugs, settling their backpacks in bunk rooms. It’s got the feel of a fraternity or a sorority, except the volunteers aren’t planning social events. “We’re running 911 calls,” Nixon said.
Responsibility to the Community
“I don’t think anyone sees it as a job,” said third-year commerce student Ramses Perez, who’d just stolen out of the firehouse locker room after his daily phone call with his mother, Karina, a house cleaner. “We enjoy coming here.”
Takelia Jones, Volunteer Firefighter: People always ask me like, 'What's the craziest thing you've seen?' I think people fail to realize those scary calls can be traumatizing. I have seen things that not an average person sees and then go about their day like not an average person goes to a really bad car accident and then go to school the next day.
Seminole Trail Volunteer Fire Department is primarily students, we do the same job that career firefighters do. We run EMS calls, medical calls, fire calls.
Mannix Green, Volunteer Firefighter: We run an average of 3,000 calls a year, which is the highest in the county. The most important part of this job to me is the relationships that I've made through it.
This place attracts people of all majors, so that allows me to interact with people with different viewpoints, different backgrounds.
Takelia Jones, Volunteer Firefighter: Everyone gets along and everyone's included, and everyone feels like they're part of the team because no matter your rank, you are part of the team.
This is a space for you to challenge yourself and to grow and to build connections, but you also have a sense of doing good.
Mannix Green, Volunteer Firefighter: I help people who might be having the worst day of their lives, and I get to be there to make that a little bit better for them.
Takelia Jones, Volunteer Firefighter: I feel like I'm doing my part for the community, to help it become better.
“I talk to my mother all the time. Both of my parents are very motivating to me,” he said.
Perez said he has always wanted to be a part of something bigger. The start of his first year at UVA, his father Donald asked “what sort of mark I wanted to leave on Charlottesville,” Perez recalled. Looking around a large common room in the fire station in late August, he said volunteering there with his classmates would help leave his mark. “Thefirst thing that comes into mind when I come here is the sense of responsibility you feel for your community.”
“I’ll be here until I can’t anymore. That’s the plan. Until they pull me out of here or I have to not be in Charlottesville,” Perez said, with a pleased look on his face.
Saying ‘Thank You’
Six months into her recovery, Jessica and her husband Damien got matching tattoos. They read “06.12,” a double memorial to their wedding day and the day Jessica survived her cardiac arrest.
Six months later, the pair went to the Seminole Trail station to say thank you.
Mack, who led the team effort to save Ream, happened to be at the station. Ream’s voice cracked with emotion as she recalled the visit. “I just really wanted to make that connection and thank them,” she said as she dabbed her eyes.
Ream shows the tattoo that memorializes her wedding day and the day she survived her cardiac arrest. (Photo by Erin Edgerton, University Communications)
On the second anniversary of her survival, Ream texted Mack another “Thank you.” She had other happy news to share. She and Damien were expecting a daughter.
Ream is six months pregnant. She and her husband are considering using June as their daughter’s middle name. “It’s always been my favorite month,” Ream said. “June to me is a celebration of life and happiness.”
Firefighter Takelia Jones is a member of UVA’s Class of 2025. (Photo by Erin Edgerton, University Communications)
Henry Nixon is the volunteer coordinator. He began working at the station when he was a first-year student. He graduated from UVA in 2021. (Photo by Kelly West, University Communications)
Green breaks open a door. (Photo by Erin Edgerton, University Communications)
Third-year commerce student Ramses Perez carries an attic ladder after his unit responded to a house call for reports of smoke. (Photo by Erin Edgerton, University Communications)
The volunteers are close knit. Eighty-five percent of them are current or former UVA students. (Photo by Erin Edgerton, University Communications)
Green slides down the pole at the Seminole Trail station. (Photo by Erin Edgerton, University Communications)
Volunteers recruit at UVA’s Student Activities Fair in August. (Photo by Erin Edgerton, University Communications)
