Foxboro Restaurant Workers Save Man Having Heart Attack
FOXBORO (CBS) - Fred Leland had to come by the 99 Restaurant off of Route 140 in Foxboro on Thursday, and it was not for a lunch special.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Mark Katic reports.
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Leland stopped by to thank General Manager Pam Abrantes and shift supervisor Adrienne Kennedy for saving his father in law Bill Tomaselo's life.
"I can't thank you enough on behalf of the family. Thank you both," said Leland. "It takes courage and strength and character to get down on the floor and save somebody."
Tomaselo walked into the 99 Restaurant Wednesday night around 6 p.m.
Kennedy, a former EMT, said she knew something was wrong.
"Well, I greeted him when he came into the door, said 'Welcome to the 99, How are you?' and I didn't get a response. He didn't look me in the eye and didn't look 100 percent right, and he proceeded to walk and stumble right away," said Kennedy.
Abrantes came over, and soon Tomaselo was on the floor with no pulse.
"Adrienne and I looked at each other, and she's like, 'We have to do CPR.' So, we just talked for like 30 seconds amongst ourselves. She decided she would do CPR. We did mouth-to-mouth," said Abrantes.
The American Heart Association says around 300,000 people a year suffer massive heart attacks outside of a hospital and only about 8 percent survive. However, their chances to live double or even triple if someone nearby knows CPR.
"We did it probably for about 10 minutes and by then, we had a police officer show up. He took over CPR, I continued to breathe. At that point, we did have the fire department come," said Abrantes.
Kennedy says more people should know CPR -- because you just don't know when you can save someone's life.
"We always have a CPR-trained person on staff here, and I think it's very wise for every business to have one just in case something like that ever does happen," said Kennedy. "It's a great thing to have."
Tomaselo is in critical condition, but expected to make a full recovery.
