Benjamin Gates has played cello at the White House and the Kennedy Center, but the audience he most wanted to play for was the first responders who saved his life.
Gates is thriving despite spending weeks in a coma after being struck in a hit-and-run in Southeast D.C. last year.
The D.C. Fire and EMS Third Battalion was there one night in January 2021 – when Gates needed them most.
“When we pulled up and saw him laying on the ground, we knew as soon as we pulled up, before even getting out, Alright, this is the real deal,” said medic Mike Jones, who administered CPR.
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The driver didn’t stop to help, leaving Gates lying on the road, suffering from broken bones and a traumatic brain injury.
“To be honest, we run a lot of pedestrian struck,” Jones said.
Many of those calls end in death, but Jones and his team brought Gates back to life.
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“That night, everything went well,” Jones said.
The fact that this was able to happen is just something that I am personally, like, really overjoyed by.
Benjamin Gates
First responders don’t always know what happens to the people they save once they drop them off at the hospital.
“We do a lot of good in the city but rarely do we get a chance to see the good afterwards,” Jones said.
Reuniting with survivors and their families shows them the enormous impact they have.
Whenever a survivor wants to reunite with their rescuers, D.C. Fire and EMS provides them with coins called “cardiac arrest saves” to hand out to first responders in recognition of their heroic work.
“Some crews have eight or nine of them, and some people get them for the first time,” said D.C. Fire Chief John Donnelly, who wanted to be there for the reunion. “It’s pretty amazing and it’s just a way to recognize that you made a difference that day.”
Gates handed out six.
“I can’t express enough just how I had to come in here and to be able to say thank you, and the fact that this was able to happen is just something that I am personally, like, really overjoyed by,” he told his rescuers.
And he had one more gift to give – the gift of music.
For a brief moment, time stood still inside the fire station in Anacostia. Sirens and radios were replaced by the warm, rich sounds of a cello, which – if it weren’t for those brave men – would have been silenced forever.
