Off-Duty NYPD Officers Save Man Having A Heart Attack During Their Bowling Game
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Quick actions by three off-duty NYPD officers helped save the life of a man on Staten Island over the weekend.
The officers were bowling when a man had a heart attack.
In their spare time, NYPD officers Giovanni Cucuzza, Joseph Glorioso, and John Desiderio compete in a weekly bowling league.
They were together Sunday night at Rab's Country Lanes when a few lanes over a man collapsed.
"So we noticed him fall and we all ran over… He had slight breaths, he was gasping. We got him onto the floor and he had no pulse at all," Officer Glorioso said.
Surveillance footage shows Cucuzza running to get a defibrillator, while Desiderio did chest compressions, and Glorioso checked for vitals.
They used the defibrillator to shock the man back to life and within a minute and a half he was breathing again. They stayed with him until paramedics arrived.
"Our training just took into effect. We saw that the gentleman needed our help," Officer Cucuzza said.
The FDNY responded to that call in less than six minutes. The man was taken by ambulance to a hospital on Staten Island. CBS2's Nick Caloway reports that man was undergoing surgery on Tuesday.
The man in that video is Roy Spiro.
The 65-year-old has been bowling at Rab's with his family for years.
Spiro's family told CBS2 in a statement "we are forever thankful for the three officers, the man who caught him, and the entire staff of Rab's. We are forever indebted to everyone."
The three officers were just happy they were in the right place at the right time.
"Just to know that he gets to spend more time with his family, I'm grateful for that," Officer Desiderio said.
The officers each said this was the first time they've conducted CPR, saying they relied on their training and thankfully it worked.
Those officers went back to bowling after saving the man's life. One of them told CBS2 he bowled his best game ever.