E.B. police officers credited
with resuscitating resident
By vincent todaro
Staff Writer

EAST BRUNSWICK — Township police officers were able to save a 45-year-old township man who had stopped breathing after collapsing on Saturday morning.

Police said a resident of Farms Road Circle woke up Saturday morning not feeling well and collapsed in front of his wife around 7:30 a.m. His wife, who is a nurse, dialed 911 for help and began to administer CPR.

"When the police officers arrived, the man had no pulse and was not breathing," said Police Sgt. Gerald Ravaioli, who was commanding the police station at the time of the call. "There was no pulse and no breathing, so [the officers] immediately started CPR and hooked him up to the automated defibrillator."

Officers Donald Bennett and Lori Bennett, who are not related, responded, along with officer Kevin Bolch, he said.

The officers began to administer CPR on the man and used an automatic defibrillator to restart his heart. Ravaioli said two shocks from the device were enough to get his heart beating again.

"It shocked him twice and that’s when they got a pulse back," Ravaioli said.

After the CPR and defibrillator, the man began "very shallow" breathing, Ravaioli said. The resident was taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick, where he remains.

The sergeant said the man was conscious and alert and recovering well at the hospital.

"They got him to the hospital, where he’s apparently doing very well," Ravaioli said.

The East Brunswick Rescue Squad also responded to the call, police said.

Ravaioli said the resident is a police lieutenant with another department where he works midnight shifts.

In East Brunswick, each police officer is assigned a defibrillator that is carried along in the police car, Ravaioli said.

"We have units at headquarters, and when officers go out on duty they take [the defibrillator] with them," he said.

The use of defibrillators by police departments is becoming more and more widespread, he said.

"All of our police officers are trained to use it as part of the annual CPR and first aid training they get here," he said.

"They did a good job," he said of the officers who brought the man back to life.