On Jan. 10, 2011, Becky Cole was getting ready for bed when she started feeling dizzy.

And before she even had a chance to put down her toothbrush, she collapsed. The Woodinville resident said her husband had thought she was having a seizure but she had actually gone into sudden cardiac arrest.

“I was gone,” Cole said about how her heart had just stopped beating.

Cole’s husband called 911 and she said the operator instructed him on how to perform CPR. Soon, first responders — from the Redmond Fire Department (RFD) and other surrounding agencies — arrived to take over for Cole’s husband.

While recounting the story, Cole explains that all the information she shares is secondhand as she has no memories of the incident after the initial dizziness she’d been feeling.

“That’s the last thing I remember,” she said.

Almost four years later, Cole — who was eight months pregnant with her fourth child at the time — is happy and healthy. Her almost-4-year-old son is fine, as well.

“Like a typical 3-and-a-half-year-old, getting into trouble every day,” she said.

Cole credits her and her son’s survival to the paramedics who responded to the 911 call. The first responders were Medic One paramedics, who must complete an intensive, 10-month training program.

The program is privately funded through the Medic One Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing excellent pre-hospital care for patients in emergency situations.

According to its website, the foundation was started when Dr. Leonard Cobb and Seattle Fire Chief Gordon Vickery initiated a program in 1969 to test two questions: Is it possible to save the lives of critically ill patients outside of a hospital? And can they train non-physicians to provide advanced care under the remote direction of a physician?

“Within two years, they showed that the answer to both questions was ‘yes,’ and Medic One became a permanent community service,” the website states.

According to its website, the foundation has provided the primary support for the research, paramedic training and medical review behind the Medic One response system for more than 30 years.

Jan Sprake, executive director for the foundation, said Medic One trains paramedics for all of King County and a good portion of Snohomish County as well as other agencies throughout the Puget Sound region.

While not all paramedics in Snohomish County and other Puget Sound-area agencies are required to go through the Medic One training, Sprake said in order to become a paramedic in King County, the first-responders-to-be must go through the Medic One program.

“You cannot be a paramedic in King County unless you go through our training program,” said Sprake.

Currently, she said, 46 Medic One-trained paramedics have served the Redmond community.

It is this intensive training — which totals 2,500 hours — that Cole is grateful for, saying the more advanced care Medic One paramedics learn made the difference in her case. She said if she had been living somewhere else, she probably would not have received as good care.

“Without (Medic One), our lives would be totally different,” she said.

At the moment, Medic One is training 23 soon-to-be paramedics — including two from Redmond. This is the largest class Medic One has had since 2003, Sprake said.

The training program, which began in October, costs $575,000 and the Medic One Foundation has been holding a fundraising campaign, which will run through the end of the year, to cover the expenses. An additional $40,000 will go toward two new training defibrillators, Sprake said, bringing the total to $615,000. She said they still need about $100,000 by the end of the year.

Just as the foundation’s year-end fundraiser will help pay for medical equipment, Sprake said they have done the same in the past.

For the City of Redmond, she said the Medic One Foundation has provide one automated external defibrillator, an emergency staff vehicle and a multiple casualty trailer. Sprake said the latter is to transport equipment and supplies needed to set up a headquarters in the case of a large disaster.

To learn more about the Medic One Foundation or to donate, visit www.mediconefoundation.org or call (206) 744-9425.