Feb. 01--For the third time in the past two weeks, Suffolk County police officer James Garside helped resuscitate a victim in distress -- saving a life.
Garside, responding to a 911 call reporting a woman in cardiac arrest, was able to resuscitate the 46-year-old victim Tuesday evening in Huntington, police said. The woman, whose identity was not released, was transported by the Huntington Community First Aid Squad to Huntington Hospital in critical condition.
On Jan. 19 police said Garside helped save an overdose victim and on Jan. 24 he helped revive a heart attack victim.
The resuscitation Tuesday is just the latest in a long line of heroic actions by Garside, a Second Precinct patrol officer, who also is a member of MEDCAT -- the Medical Crisis Action Team.
Those actions are chronicled in a series of police news releases dating back to November 2004, when Garside helped save an 83-year-old woman who had wandered away from her Huntington home.
The woman, suffering from Alzheimer's disease, was disoriented, dehydrated, barefoot and clad only in a nightgown when found. She had a body temperature of 85 degrees.
But, police said, she survived in part due to emergency medical treatment by Garside.
An October 2006 news release relayed how Garside, on patrol, spotted a swerving car on Deer Park Avenue and initiated a traffic stop. There was a 23-year-old driver and her five-month-old infant son in the car.He arrested the mother on drunken driving and child endangerment charges.
In January 2009, Garside was part of a team of four Second Precinct officers who save the life of a 48-year-old Bethpage man having a heart attack. That May, he was credited with helping save the life of a 67-year-old Huntington woman who collapsed in her home.
On July 23, 2010, police said Garside and Second Precinct officers Joseph Lanzisera and Jeffrey Damo revived a 68-year-old heart attack victim in his Huntington Station home.
Then, there were the incidents on Jan. 19 and Jan. 24, following by the resuscitation Tuesday evening in Huntington. That incident was reported at about 5:15 p.m.
Police said Second Precinct officer John Fenelius and an off-duty Cold Spring Harbor firefighter, Matthew Renz, were the first to respond to the home on West Neck Road, where the 46-year-old woman was in cardiac arrest. The woman was not breathing, police said, and her husband was performing CPR -- which Fenelius and Renz continued.
Police said Garside arrived moments later, performed an endotracheal intubation -- what is known as an advanced airway -- and then used a defibrillator to restore the woman's heartbeat.
She was then transported to Huntington Hospital.
Copyright 2012 - Newsday, Melville, N.Y.
