FDNY Holds Annual Second Chance Ceremony

May 20, 2025

Survivors to be Reunited with the Rescuers who Saved Their Lives

In celebration of National EMS Week 2025, FDNY will hold its 29th annual Second Chance Ceremony on Wednesday, May 21, at 10 a.m. at Liberty Warehouse – 260 Conover Street, Brooklyn. This special event will reunite patients who have survived cardiac arrest with the Paramedics, Emergency Medical Technicians, FDNY EMS Officers, Firefighters, Dispatchers, bystanders, and other first responders who helped save their lives.

The survivors include Ellen Traore, who was born unresponsive and resuscitated by FDNY members, and 11-year-old Chance Young, whose school nurse began lifesaving CPR after he went into cardiac arrest while at school.

Several of this year's survivors received cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) from bystanders before on-duty FDNY EMS members and Firefighters arrived. In each rescue, the crews provided each patient with proper and efficient care which ultimately saved their life. The FDNY CPR Training Unit offers free compressions-only CPR training throughout the city and has trained more than 200,000 New Yorkers to perform bystander CPR, including more than 80,000 high school students.

WHO: FDNY Commissioner Robert S. Tucker, Chief of Department John Esposito, Chief of EMS Operations Michael Fields, FDNY Officials

WHERE: Liberty Warehouse, 260 Conover Street, Brooklyn NY

WHEN: Wednesday, May 21 – 10:00 a.m.

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