Customer, police save heart attack victim at seafood market in New Jersey

Thursday, February 18, 2021

Heart attack victim revived by Good Samaritan, police

Toni Yates reports on the heroic actions on Valentine's Day.

RARITAN, New Jersey (WABC) -- A good Samaritan and three police officers are being hailed as heroes after they revived a man who suffered a heart attack in New Jersey on Valentine's Day.

Authorities say Raritan patrol officers responded to the Castillo Seafood Market on East Somerset Street for a 52-year-old Hillsborough man who was unconscious.

Sgt. Everett Holt and officers Christopher Hirsch and Andrew Ragati arrived on scene within a minute of the call to find Raritan resident Megan Milota performing CPR on the victim.

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Authorities say Milota was a customer and had been performing CPR since the man collapsed.

"The woman that works in the restaurant was on the phone and she was calling 911 and I said 'put 911 on speaker phone and let me start chest compressions,'" Milota said.

She provided officers with valuable time to set up their emergency equipment, and the man was shocked with a defibrillator twice.

Soon after, medics and EMS from Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in Somerville arrived on scene to continue care.

Prior to being transported to the hospital, the male regained consciousness and was stabilized.

Police say he is doing well and is awaiting transfer to another medical facility for a procedure.

Milota lives in Maryland and comes to New Jersey to take her son to hockey practice. He plays for a local team and she just so happens to be a CPR instructor because of a tough lesson she learned about 13 years ago when her daughter was a preemie.

"My daughter coded when she was a baby, and I panicked and I freaked and I cried and I didn't know what to do, so I said I'm going to start teaching it so I can teach it in a way that people actually get it," Milota said.

Plans are now in the works to give Milota an award.

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