Tuesday January 07, 2003
(Mahopac, New York-AP) -- A Somers man was saved by a police officer using a defibrillator after the man collapsed in a supermarket and stopped breathing.
Carmel Police Officer Ernie Iarussi has been on the town police force for just two years. He says he's practiced using the defibrillator, but yesterday morning was the first time he had to use it for real.
Officer Iarussi was called to the A-and-P Sav-A-Center on Route Six in Mahopac at 11:30 a-m for a man who collapsed. Iarussi says the man was not breathing and had no pulse.
An off-duty Stamford firefighter - Michael Repp - helped begin C-P-R. Iarussi got his defibrillator and gave the victim one jolt, which started his heart again.
Ambulance workers arrived shortly after and took 75-year-old Robert O'Connor ot Somers to the Putnam Hospital Center.
He's listed in critical but stable condition this morning.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
