EMT Saves Cardiac Arrest Victim on First Tour

EMT Thomas Leonard joined the FDNY EMS Command to save lives … and he didn’t waste any time getting to work.

Two days before he graduated from the EMS Academy, he helped save the life of a cardiac arrest victim in Coney Island.

“I was shocked for about two seconds, but I knew we had a job to do and went right to work,” said EMT Leonard.

At around 10:30 p.m. on June 15, he and his partner, EMT Michael McCormack, received a call for a victim in cardiac arrest.

Within two minutes they arrived on the scene and were met by a frantic woman who said her husband had collapsed upstairs.

They found the 77-year-old victim on the sixth floor, lying unconscious and in a puddle of blood between the hallway and the elevator.

The EMTs carried the man into the hallway and immediately began CPR.

Paramedics arrived minutes later and administered drugs as the EMTs continued CPR to the ambulance. The victim was transported to Coney Island Hospital.

EMT Leonard, the son of Deputy Chief James Leonard of Division 8, said he was thrilled to be joining the EMS Command, saying, “I was taught by the best and I already love the job.”