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Nine Metro-North Railroad employees were celebrated for “seamlessly working together to save an unresponsive customer” on board a train heading from Grand Central to Wassaic.
Shortly after 5:15 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 20, as the doors was closing on the Dutchess County-bound train, a passenger called out for help when a fellow passenger was lying prone on the train floor, turning blue as he stopped breathing.
According to the MTA, “the Good Samaritan called out to General Foreman Jason Tiller, who was on the train platform. Without hesitating, Tiller placed a radio call to the MTA Police Department and Metro-North’s Fire Brigade, and Assistant Conductor John Hagan cleared a path so that first responders could get to the customer in distress as quickly as possible.”
Minutes after hearing Tiller’s call, Laurence Jacobs, Grand Central Terminal Fire Brigade Assistant Chief, Sohail Peter, a Grand Central Terminal Fire Brigade volunteer, and MTA Police Officers responded to the scene to assist. Jacobs and Peter took over from an off-duty EMT on the train who was performing CPR on the passenger.
“Grand Central Terminal is a vast and non-uniform building, with over five miles of tunnels and passageways,” Port Washington resident Jacobs said. “The Brigade is first on the scene for emergencies at the Terminal, and we direct the NYPD, FDNY and MTAPD so that they get to the incident location as quickly as possible.”
Jacobs and Peter then moved the man from the aisle into a clear space in the car to offer him care, administrating two shocks to his chest with a defibrillator. As Jacobs and Peter worked to save the man, MTA Police officers, raced out to Lexington Avenue and waved down an ambulance. Paramedics then transported him to a nearby hospital. The passenger has since been released and has made a full recovery.
“You approach every emergency scene with confidence, ready to help and with good thoughts for the person’s recovery,” Peter, who works as a custodian for Metro-North and has been volunteering for the Fire Bridge for over 17 years, said. “Shortly after we started working to resuscitate the man, we felt a pulse, and he started breathing again. That was the greatest moment.”
Trainmaster Robert Fitzgerald, Conductor Yvonne Hyatt, Trainmaster Scott Zucker, Track PA Operator Delra Dangleben, and Trainmaster Joseph Marciano worked in concert to facilitate clearing the train for this medical emergency, efficiently getting customers back on the move and on to a different train, according to the MTA.
In a statement, Putnam County resident Fitzgerald said that, “this was a great example of the sort of teamwork that I see every day here at Metro-North. First and foremost, we all stepped up to help a customer who was in distress, and secondly, to keep service running smoothly.”
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