Maureen Mazzaglia of Hillsborough is not one
to turn a blind eye to a stranger in need
By:Alec Moore
In early December, during a family vacation in Williamsburg, Va., Ms. Mazzaglia, her sister Deidre Gorman of Staten Island, N.Y., and some of their other relatives had been taking a stroll through the colonial district, taking in the sights and sounds of the holiday season.
"It was like your typical holiday tourist scene," said Ms. Mazzaglia, whose attention quickly shifted from the sounds of Christmas carols and ornately decorated store windows to a desperate call for help.
Ms. Mazzaglia and Ms. Gorman heard a young woman yelling frantically to find someone with a cell phone. The reason for the young woman’s excitement was the fact that an elderly gentleman, later determined to be 65 years-old, on a park bench appeared to be in medical distress.
Ms. Mazzaglia, a nurse at St. Peter’s University Hospital in New Brunswick, told her sister to call 9-1-1 on her cell phone and, as a small crowd of onlookers gathered at the scene, Ms. Mazzaglia then took action to attempt to help the stricken man.
"I went over and tried to get a pulse," said Ms. Mazzaglia, who discovered that the man did not have a pulse and was not breathing. During her 15-year career as a nurse, Ms. Mazzaglia had practiced CPR (cardio-pulmonary resuscitation) and rescue breathing on mannequins many times, but had never before faced a real situation where those skills would be needed.
"I knew that something had to be done," she said, noting that she did not respond to help the elderly man because she was a nurse by profession, but because it was apparent that, at that moment, she was the only person who could do anything to save the man’s life. "I realized that I was the only one there who knew what to do," she said.
Moments after Ms. Mazzaglia had checked the man’s pulse and respiration, another Samaritan, who happened to be an emergency room doctor, lent his assistance to the situation.
The doctor and Ms. Mazzaglia then lowered the victim to the ground and began two-person CPR. During two-person CPR one rescuer executes chest compressions while the other rescuer performs mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on the victim.
In this case, Ms. Mazzaglia performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitations while the doctor performed compressions. For the next ten minutes, Ms. Mazzaglia and the doctor performed CPR on the victim, never giving up hope that his life could be saved.
During the ordeal, a Williamsburg police officer had arrived on the scene to lend support. Ms. Mazzaglia asked the female officer if she had a portable defibrillator, but the officer said she did not have one.
"We worked on him until the paramedics arrived and then we just backed off," said Ms. Mazzaglia who found it very disheartening that officers in Williamsburg, a tourist destination frequented by many visitors, did not have any portable defibrillators. "That’s really what was lacking," she said of the portable defibrillators, expressing that it could have made the difference between life and death for the elderly man, who was later pronounced dead at an area hospital.
"We’ve got to get more of these AED’s (automatic electronic defibrillators) out there," Ms. Mazzaglia said. "They’re so easy to use, anyone who knows how to read can use one, you just follow the directions."
It was later determined that the elderly gentleman, who had been visiting Williamsburg with family members, had gone into cardiac arrest.
Despite the fact that the elderly gentleman did not survive his ordeal, Ms. Mazzaglia takes solace in knowing that she and the doctor did all they could to save the man. She is also comforted in knowing that the man’s family whom she spoke with can take comfort themselves in knowing that when their father was in need of help, there were people who came to his aid. "His family has the comfort of knowing that someone tried to help him," she said.
Ms. Mazzaglia’s experience in Williamsburg has left an indelible impression on her and, most importantly, strengthened her belief that CPR is a valuable skill that everyone should know, not just medical professionals and rescue workers.
"If anyone ever has the opportunity to learn CPR, then they should definitely take it," she said.
Earlier this month, Ms. Mazzaglia was presented with an American Heartsaver award from the American Heart Association for her selfless efforts.
Anyone interested in learning CPR can call the American Heart Association at (732) 821-2610 or visit online at www.americanheart.org.