Heart attack survivor has new life mission after NYPD saved his life

ByEyewitness News WABC logo
Thursday, August 16, 2018
Heart attack survivor has new life mission after NYPD saved his life
Rob Nelson reports on the lifesaving actions from NYPD officers and doctors on a heart attack victim.

MANHATTAN, New York (WABC) -- A prominent businessman visiting NYC from Delaware is grateful to be alive and thanking the NYPD officers and doctors who saved his life last week.

Bill Stevenson, 70, was working on West 106th Street last Wednesday when he found himself suffering a major heart attack. He collapsed on the sidewalk and was barely clinging to life.

On Thursday, with two new stents in place, he had a chance to thank the team of heroes who saved his life.

Stevenson was reunited with the two NYPD officers outside his hospital room at Mount Sinai where his impressive recovery and deeply felt gratitude was on full display.

It was the first time the two officers used a defibrillator, other than during training, to bring a person back to life.

After Stevenson's medical crisis and four days in a coma, he is now focused on making sure police cars everywhere have a potentially life-saving defibrillator.

Each NYPD precinct now has at least six of them, with about 22,000 members already trained, and they have been used 40 times so far this year in the city.

Stevenson is the ex-husband of Jill Biden, the wife of former Vice President Joe Biden.

He also founded a famous rock club in Delaware where an emerging artist named Bruce Springsteen once played in the '70s.

Now he is headed back home with a better heart and a new mission.

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