By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

ST. ROSE – Although it can sometimes be incredibly painful, a sting from a wasp or other bug is typically only a minor annoyance, but for LaPlace resident Steve Gennaro it was a life-threatening ordeal.

Gennaro, 50, a maintenance worker at Magnolia Companies in St. Rose, was at the helm of a Bobcat tractor trying to assist co-worker Joel Maurin, who had gotten a forklift stuck in the mud. As he maneuvered the tractor a wasp buzzed near his head. Gennaro removed his hat and swatted the insect away, but the wasp swooped back and stung him on the forehead. That’s when Gennaro knew he was in trouble.

“As a child, I developed an allergy to wasp stings,” Gennaro said. “When I was younger, all they would do was cause swelling, but as I got older stings would eventually cause my throat to choke up, which is what happened that day.”

Gennaro said he knew he only had a few minutes to alert his co-workers to what was happening. He managed to drive the Bobcat back to the building, where he stumbled off into the garage and went down to the ground. Before he lost consciousness, Gennaro was able to inform his co-workers that he was without his Epipen, an injector that neutralizes the allergic reaction.

Seeing their co-worker on the ground fighting for his life, Maurin and Johnny Bombarra, general manager of G. Smith Motorsports, acted on instinct and began attempting CPR as others called 911. Arielle Lege, a four-year veteran of the St. Charles Parish 911 Communications District, answered the call.

“Everything escalated very fast,” Lege said. “At first it sounded like he had just been stung, but then he stopped breathing. They told me he was allergic and going into anaphylactic shock. At that point all you can do is keep calm and relay directions.”

Bombarra said he had been a CPR instructor more than 20 years ago but had never used the skills in a real life situation. He said instructions offered by Lege helped quite a bit. He jumped into action and directed others, who also really didn’t know what to do.

“Arielle did quite a bit to guide us through and keep us all calm,” Bombarra said. “She helped make an extremely tense situation very smooth. She kept us all together.

For about eight minutes, Bombarra and Maurin performed CPR on Gennaro until paramedics arrived. All the while, Gennaro’s tongue swelled, his face turned blue, and he stopped breathing.

Bombarra recalled the incident feeling as if time had slowed down.

“It was a matter of minutes, but it felt more like three or four weeks,” he said. “It was a great relief to see that ambulance pull up the drive.”

With Bombarra and Maurin performing CPR, Gennaro was able to hang on long enough for paramedics to arrive with the injection needed for him to overcome the allergic reaction. Gennaro said he awoke three days later in a hospital bed.

“I didn’t know anything,” he said. “I remember getting off the Bobcat and that’s about it. I’m happy to be standing here today.”

The Magnolia Companies recently held a luncheon to celebrate the efforts of Lege, Bombarra and Maurin in saving Gennaro. Lege said she didn’t really want the recognition as it could have been anyone working the dispatch that day.

“Everyone in our office gets the same training, and all of us would have handled the incident in the same way,” she said. “I was just the one who got the call that day. Everyone in the 911 Communications District is just as responsible for saving lives in an incident like that.”

During the luncheon, Magnolia Companies CEO Glen Smith expressed the importance of emergency training. He said all of his employees have CPR training so everyone could be ready if another incident came up.

He said, “You never think about the consequences until something like this.”