Five years later, Cathy Fitzgerald thanks Don Hay for helping her Mom while she was having a heart attack. Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adam Donnelly

BLAZERS REUNION WEEKEND

‘They just didn’t give up’: Woman thanks Blazers alumni who helped during 2015 emergency

Feb 24, 2020 | 5:26 PM

KAMLOOPS — On January 25, 2015, while traveling the Coquihalla Highway, Cathy Fitzgerald and her family stopped at the rest area near the old toll booth. What happened next can only be described as the worst-case scenario.

“My mom slipped on the ice a little bit,” Fitzgerald recounted. “I guess that started her heart attack.”

Alone on the Coquihalla, halfway between Merritt and Hope, it would be close to an hour before paramedics could attend. That’s where the Kamloops Blazers come into the story. Trainer Colin Robinson and head coach Don Hay — former KFR firefighter — jumped into action to try and save 76-year-old Donna Bader.

“The Blazers bus pulled in, and they came out, they brought the AED device,” Fitzgerald remembered. “They all surrounded her. it was windy, and they kept the wind off of her, and they performed CPR on her until the ambulance came, which was over an hour.”

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“Colin and I jumped out and obviously wanted to help,” Hay recalled. “Having been a firefighter in the past, and Colin having some medical training, it was important for us to give a hand and try to help out.”

Tragically, Bader didn’t survive. Once the ambulance arrived and paramedics took over, Robinson and Hay got back on the bus, and the team drove back to Kamloops. In the chaos, Fitzgerald didn’t have the opportunity to say thank you.

“They were gone before — they just sort of faded away, and with everything that was going on, I never got a chance to thank them,” Fitzgerald said.

That changed Saturday. Fitzgerald’s daughter, Sarina White, won a Tourism Kamloops contest to come to the Blazers Memorial Cup Anniversary Weekend. They used it as an opportunity to reconnect with Hay, and finally, thank him and the Blazers organization for all they did.

While the outcome wasn’t what anyone hoped for that day on the Coquihalla, the event left its mark on the former Blazers head coach.

“You come by there, and you look at the spot that it took place in, and you remember it,” Hay said. “It’s finally nice to meet [Cathy] here today and say hello. Her thanking us, its kind of special.”

For Fitzgerald, she’ll be forever thankful for the kindness of strangers, and for the opportunity to say thanks finally.

“They just didn’t give up,” Fitzgerald said. “It was amazing. They were wonderful.”