HAMILTON — It’s been a tradition for years for Mercerville firefighters to grab a bite to eat at Jo Jo’s Tavern on Tuesday nights and socialize a bit.
Last Tuesday, they sprang into action at the Nottingham Way bar when a man started to collapse – and saved his life.
Moments after they heard a waiter say, “Hey, hey, hey!” Chris Tozzi, Brian Pfeiffer and Alec Martin were hovering over the man, performing CPR.
When the patient left on an ambulance’s stretcher, the man was talking. “Which is always a comforting feeling, and something you don’t always get at such a call,” Tozzi said Tuesday, a week after the incident.
Tozzi, the career fire chief for Mercerville’s Fire District 2, said he and Pfeiffer, a career firefighter, and Martin, a volunteer captain, heard the commotion and could tell right away something was medically wrong.
“I looked over and got that vibe that something’s not right,” Tozzi said.
As he got closer, Tozzi could tell the man was in obvious respiratory and cardiac distress, and teetering while slumped over a table. Tozzi grabbed Sekabet him and put him on the floor.
“I ripped off his shirt and started chest compressions,” Tozzi said.
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People called 911, but Pfeiffer and Martin called their firehouse directly and a career firefighter sprinted across the street with medical gear. ahead of the fire apparatus.
As the three men worked, a police officer arrived with an AED – an automated external defibrillator – and county paramedics and the rest of the and on-duty firefighters then arrived, and the men handed over care to them.
Tozzi, a CPR trainer, said the AED did not instruct a shock to the man’s heart because it was a different type of cardiac distress.
The man, Tozzi said, benefitted from immediate, quality CRP, and a fast response by the EMS crew as well, he said, stressing that he’s not bragging.
“You can’t beat that quick and confident CPR, it’s the high quality CPR that the American Heart Association always talks about,” Tozzi said.
“And we had a great result,” Tozzi said.
Tozzi said he has not talked to the man since the attack, but the firefighters are eager to see him when he’s better. They know the man as a regular, and Tozzi said he personally greets him every Tuesday evening.
Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@kevintshea. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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