Cops use medical training they learned that day to save man

Brentwood, NY (SmithtownRadio.com) – Call it the right place at the right time.

Three Suffolk County Department Officer were coming out of a Applebee’s Restaurant in Brentwood after a day of medical training.Medical Crisis Action Team Officers James Garside, Angela Ferrara, and Joseph D’Alessandro noticed a plume of white smoke coming out of a running car as they walked to their vehicles around 7:30 p.m.

Inside the vehicle, the officers found a 23-year-old man, unconscious, slumped over his steering wheel and barely breathing. The officers called 911 and extricated the victim from the 2004 Mazda.

Officer Garside went to his personal vehicle and retrieved a defibrillator/cardiac monitor and used it to analyze the victim’s EKG and blood oxygen level. Officer D’Alessandro started to resuscitate the victim, while Officer Ferrara prepared an IV line. Approximately 4-5 minutes later, the victim started breathing on his own. He was transported to St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center in Smithtown, via Brentwood Legion Ambulance for observation.

MEDCAT officers are assigned to the advanced life support team under the direction of Dr. Scott Coyne, the Chief Surgeon and Medical Director of the Suffolk County Police Department, and carry Advanced Life Support equipment in their vehicles. The three had just finished a full day of Advanced Cardiac Life Support Training at the Police Academy in Brentwood.