Veteran Los Angeles firefighter Cruz Macias got to say thank you Tuesday to his colleagues at Fire Station 87 in Granada Hills and the medical team at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center one year after recovering from a stroke he suffered while on duty.

Macias, who returned to work earlier this year, found himself partly paralyzed last December while trying to get into a fire engine to respond to an urgent fire call.

Macias said his Los Angeles Fire Department colleagues, who immediately recognized his symptoms and got an ambulance there to take him to Providence Holy Cross, “had trained and they were prepared and they did their job exactly the way they were supposed to.”

“And I’m very grateful,” Macias said at a news conference held outside the hospital’s emergency room in Mission Hills. “You got me to this incredible facility here, and got me to these doctors and nurses, who I’m very grateful for and because of them, I’m here today to talk to you.”

Macias was treated via a telemedicine robot and received the “clot-busting” drug tPA, which helped to preserve his brain function and prevented permanent other damage, according to a statement from the hospital.