(Poughkeepsie Journal) – He was off-duty, heading on vacation.
But when City of Poughkeepsie Firefighter James Brugger and his wife Mindy, an Emergency Medical Technician and CPR instructor, saw a man lying unconscious on the floor of Stewart International Airport in Newburgh, they sprang into action.
The Bruggers were getting ready to board a flight to Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Thursday around 6:10 p.m.
“We were in the coffee shop and there was a lot of commotion,” said James Brugger, a 20-year-veteran of the city department. “I went out into the hallway and saw a gentleman laying on the ground” near the terminal gates. “I yelled for my wife … we went down there and the guy was unconscious, not breathing with no pulse.”
The man, 65, had suffered a massive heart attack, according to state police spokesman Steven Nevel.
Luckily, there was a public-access Automated External Defibrillator (AED) on the wall of the airport.
Another firefighter from Jersey City was also there, James Brugger said. That firefighter “got the defibrillator, brought it over … I grabbed the pads, put it on” and shocked the unconscious man.
Another bystander was performing CPR, and “my wife was checking for responses,” James Brugger said. After shocking him, “I checked for a pulse … he had a pulse (and) two minutes later, he was conscious again.”
State police and other local law enforcement showed up at the scene, along with the New Windsor Ambulance Corps, and New York Air National Guard’s 105th Airlift Wing.
The man was lucky, Nevel said. “He happened to collapse right by an AED” and trained medical staff who were able to administer CPR. “For something bad to happen, he had all the right stuff around.”
