On the morning of Oct. 19, despite the fact that, it didn’t.
“Everything was turning. It was terrible,” she recalled. “It was a very strong vertigo episode that I hadn’t experienced in a long time.”
Her husband, who commutes kind of 3 hours every method day by day to the San Francisco house, had already left for his building activity. Garcia was once house by myself together with her 3 youngsters, ages 11, 9 and eight — all of whom have been asleep.
Although she took her vertigo medicine, she stated, she couldn’t stay it down and was once vomiting for a number of hours.
“It was nonstop,” she stated.
By the time her youngsters awoke round 7 a.m., “I had no strength in my body left,” Garcia stated. “I was on my bathroom floor.”
Her 3 youngsters sprang to motion. Garcia referred to as 911, and — since she had no power to communicate — her youngsters gave the dispatcher the main points.
“They were so amazing,” she stated. “I could hear them frantically trying to help me.”
Before lengthy, a workforce of emergency responders arrived on the scene, together with Brian Thompson, a captain with the Los Banos Fire Department.
Thompson and his colleagues temporarily noticed that Garcia was once in scientific misery. They referred to as an ambulance, which took her to the Memorial Hospital Los Banos Emergency Department.
Then, they grew to become their consideration to the kids, who have been scared and disappointed.
“They were definitely worried about mom,” Thompson stated. “They were distraught.”
Garcia and her circle of relatives moved closing 12 months to Los Banos from Gilroy, Calif., which is ready 48 miles away, and all of her kinfolk nonetheless are living there. Garcia’s brother straight away headed over to the home to glance after the kids — however it will take him a minimum of an hour to get there.
In the interim, Thompsons’s workforce — which incorporated two different firefighters — determined to wait with the 3 kids. They have been at the telephone with Garcia’s husband, who was once “very concerned,” Thompson stated, “and I reassured him we will be here until somebody gets here; we’ll treat them like they’re ours.”
“I would hope that somebody would do that for my children and for my wife,” stated Thompson, 54, a father of six. “It really does take a village. We all have to look out for one another.”
Thompson determined his most suitable choice was once to distract the kids.
“I asked the kids what their morning ritual was,” Thompson stated.
He began through serving them orange juice. After that, it was once on to breakfast.
“I got them involved to take out the toaster, the sugar and the cinnamon,” he stated. “They helped me make them cinnamon sugar toast.”
In a question of mins, the kids’ moods shifted, he stated.
“They were all over the house playing and showing us their toys and artwork,” Thompson stated. “They were excited that the firemen were there making them breakfast.”
“It took their mom off their minds,” he added.
As the oldest member of the fireplace division, Thompson stated, he tries to set an instance for more youthful workforce participants.
“I’m really trying to instill this belief that you should always be compassionate when doing your job,” he stated.
Once the kids completed consuming breakfast, the firefighters checked that their backpacks have been packed and able for college. About half-hour into being there, the firefighters were given an emergency name, and a Los Banos Police Department officer arrived to proceed taking a look after the kids till their uncle got here a little while later to take them to college. The officer watched cartoons with the kids.
Garcia, who was once launched from the hospital round 6 p.m. that day, has recovered from the episode.
“You can’t ask for anything more when you’re going through something like that than for someone to step in and distract your kids from what’s going on,” she stated. “It was really a team effort on their part.”
She stated she is now feeling wonderful and the child is wholesome. But she’s going to make sure this doesn’t occur once more.
“We have a plan in place,” she stated. “My family is not leaving me alone.”
A circle of relatives member now remains together with her always within the match she has every other critical vertigo episode.
When Garcia was once reunited together with her youngsters that night time, they have been as chatty as ever.
“They were so excited to tell me about their morning,” she stated. “They had totally forgotten that I was sick.”
She credit the emergency workforce for making that conceivable.
The Los Banos Fire Department later shared a Facebook post with a photograph of Thompson making the kids breakfast, and reward poured in. The tale was once first reported through Eyewitness News 3.
Although the ordeal was once aggravating, Garcia stated, she feels lucky that her youngsters have been in excellent arms whilst she was once now not there.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better crew to show up,” she stated. “I’m so thankful.”