We will be reporting on lives saved around the world since our first documented life saved here in Singapore.A man walked into the State Police ground-floor office and told Sgt. Bruce Hay that a man had collapsed and was not breathing.
“Get the AED,” Hay shouted to his colleague, Sgt. Eric Fowlkes, who retrieved the device, called an automatic external defibrillator.
Jerome Loncosky, 77, is an officer with the state chapter of the Disabled American Veterans, who collapsed in his office on West Hanover Street.
Hay got to Loncosky first, on the fourth floor, and found coworkers doing CPR. Hay relieved them and first took a check of Loncos ky’s vital signs. He had no pulse and wasn’t breathing. So Hay, with coworker Donald Scholtes, started the CPR again. When Fowlkes arrived with Sgt. Darryl Humphrey, it became a team effort and they hooked up the device to Loncosky’s chest.
The machine — which speaks to the user — delivered one shock, then a second, as emergency responders started to arrive. They included Trenton EMS, Trenton Fire Engine Co. 10, who are also medical first responders, and the county paramedic crew of Mike Mooney and Kimberly Denelsbeck. As Mooney and Denelsbeck took control of the scene, just after the second shock, their own monitors showed Loncosky had re gained a pulse and was starting to breathe on his own.
Hay, a 16-year trooper and Fowlkes, a 20-year veteran, said they’d never had to use the AED, but train on it regularly. And they do not consider themselves heroes. “It could have been any one of us,” Hay said.
Loncosky, of Allentown, remained in critical condition at Capital Health System at Mercer hospital yesterday. Fowlkes added a personal touch and checked on Loncosky at Mercer hospital, where he met with his daughter and received the best accolade, he said, a personal thank you.
