Tears and Hugs as First Responders Reunite with those They Saved

NY Daily News – May 25, 2017

by EDGAR SANDOVAL, THOMAS TRACY

There’s only one way to truly say thank you — with a hug.

A 2-year-old boy, a dancer, an FDNY firefighter and eight other lucky New Yorkers shared tears and emotional embraces with the first responders who pulled them from the brink of death during the FDNY’s 23rd Annual Second Chance Ceremony in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

“You saved my life! ” 84-year-old Antonio Arlistico told rescuer Silvana Uzcategui on Wednesday, hugging her tightly. “Anything you want from me, I give you!”

Arlistico was home on a Saturday night in March 2016 when he suddenly collapsed, stopped breathing and lost his pulse.

Uzcategui and her colleagues administered CPR and intravenous medication and rushed him to Woodhull Hospital. He said he has enjoyed his second chance by traveling to the Dominican Republic and Florida.

“I travel everywhere,” he said. “I do what I want now!”

Retired FDNY Lt. Gerald Coffin, 61, was overcome with emotion as he shook hands with FDNY first responders who saved him after he went into cardiac arrest. It felt surreal finding himself in need of their help after spending 27 years working for the department, he said.

“I’m surprised I haven’t started crying. I’m a lucky man,” Coffin said. “They took very good care of me. I just don’t even know how to say thank you.”

Coffin remembers coming home from a run with Ladder Company 149 in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, on Jan. 9, 2016.

He told his wife he was having chest pains but wanted to take a shower before going to the hospital. His wife found him collapsed in a chair with his mouth hanging open.

She called 911 right away. First responders performed CPR and shocked him with a defibrillator. They soon found a blockage in his coronary arteries that was removed at Lutheran Medical Center.

He had a chance to thank his saviors Wednesday.

“I told them, they know where I live — my house is in Bay Ridge — please stop in anytime you want,” he said. “I just feel very humble that I am here.”

First responders were happy to see 2-year-old August Chazen, who was hospitalized after she choked on a cracker on St. Patrick’s Day. August was playing at a park with his nanny when he turned blue and went into cardiac arrest.

First responders performed the Heimlich maneuver and unblocked his airway.

Ashley Newman, 32, gratefully embraced her saviors, paramedics Mingze Wu and Juan Cortes.

“I wish there was another word other than thank you,” she told them. “I’m so grateful to meet you and make that connection.”

Newman was rehearsing with The Chase Brock Experience dance group on May 5, 2016, when she fell, lost her pulse and stopped breathing. Her fellow dancers called 911.

An FDNY dispatcher guided her friends on how to do CPR but that wasn’t working. First responders soon took over and intubated her so she could breathe again.

“It’s what we do. We try and save lives,” Wu told her. “It’s actually a rare opportunity that we get to meet the survivors.”

FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro commended his rank-and-file first responders for saving so many lives.

“No two calls are ever the same,” Nigro said. “Each person is special. In each case they were brought back and given a second chance.”


 

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