FDNY Holds 25th Annual Second Chance Ceremony

May 20, 2019

In celebration of National EMS Week 2019, FDNY will hold the 25th annual Second Chance Ceremony on Tuesday, May 21 at 10 a.m. at Liberty Warehouse – 260 Conover Street, Brooklyn. This special event will reunite ten 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. In celebration of the 25th anniversary, the Department is also welcoming back seven survivors of previous Second Chance Ceremonies.

Ten survivors to be reunited with the rescuers who saved their lives; Seven alumni to be honored In celebration of National EMS Week 2019, FDNY will hold the 25th annual Second Chance Ceremony on Tuesday, May 21 at 10 a.m. at Liberty Warehouse – 260 Conover Street, Brooklyn. This special event will reunite ten 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. In celebration of the 25th anniversary, the Department is also welcoming back seven survivors of previous Second Chance Ceremonies. The ten survivors include an on-duty Firefighter, a Reverend preaching to his congregation, and a bagpiper who just finished performing at a minor league baseball pre-game ceremony.

The alumni include Brittany Smith, 23, who was two years old when she went into cardiac arrest in 1998, and now has a two-year-old daughter of her own; retired Firefighter Frank Liebeck who went into cardiac arrest in his firehouse in 1998; and Ashley Newman, a dancer who collapsed while preparing for a performance in 2016.

Three of this year’s survivors received cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) from bystanders before on-duty FDNY members arrived. Immediate CPR, coupled with defibrillation within the first few minutes after sudden cardiac arrest, can greatly increase a victim’s chance of survival. The FDNY CPR Training Unit offers free CPR training at classes throughout the city and has trained more than 100,000 New Yorkers to perform bystander CPR, including thousands of high school students. For more information about free bystander CPR training from the FDNY Mobile CPR Training Unit, call 311 or visit www.nyc.gov/FDNY/CPR.

WHO: Fire Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro; Chief of Department John Sudnik; Chief of EMS Lillian Bonsignore; Chief Medical Director Dr. Glenn Asaeda; seventeen survivors, their families and the first responders who saved them

WHERE: Liberty Warehouse – 260 Conover Street, Brooklyn

WHEN: Tuesday, May 21 – 10 a.m.

**PHOTO-OP & MEDIA AVAILABILITY**