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Shane Petruzzelli was playing at Laser Bounce Family Fun Center in Levittown on Friday, April 14, when he suddenly went into ventricular fibrillation, his mother Samantha Wendt said on Facebook.
The dangerous heart arrhythmia quickly caused the boy’s heart to stop beating altogether.
“I performed CPR on my sweet baby boy,” Wendt said. “I still don’t know how I did it.”
Within minutes, officers from the Nassau County Police Department arrived and found the boy unresponsive and without a pulse, the agency said in a statement.
Officers took over performing CPR and used an automated external defibrillator (AED). Shane was still unresponsive after one shock to the chest.
Two police medics arrived and applied “Advanced Life Support intervention,” and were able to get the boy breathing again, the department said.
“There are no words that describe the sheer horror I felt in those moments,” Wendt wrote on Facebook. “With God watching over we were able to get his heart beating again.”
Shane was rushed to Nassau University Medical Center, where doctors were able to stabilize his breathing and pulse, according to police.
He was later transferred to the pediatric ICU at Cohen’s Children’s Hospital, where he would spend the next 16 days, his aunt Jennifer Wendt-Donneruno said on a GoFundMe created to help the family with medical expenses.
Doctors eventually told Wendt that Shane had a cardiac fibroma, a rare tumor of the heart.
“Shane has gone through several tests while at Cohen's and our family is so happy to know that he lost no brain activity while he was unconscious,” Wendt-Donneruno said.
On April 30, Shane was transferred to Boston Children’s Hospital after being cleared to undergo his life-saving open heart surgery.
Doctors removed 90 percent of the tumor from his heart. Several more days in the ICU followed as hospital staff monitored his recovery.
Finally on Wednesday, May 10, Wendt-Donneruno updated followers saying “Super Shane” was recovering well and would be discharged to come home.
“We are so grateful to all of the hospital staff from the Doctors and Nurses to the Research team and all those behind the scenes that provided the care that our beautiful boy needed to see this day,” she said.
Waiting to greet the boy at a homecoming celebration on Thursday, May 11 were dozens of community members, including Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman and several members of the Nassau County Police Department. Spider-Man even made an appearance.
Several officers formed a line holding cards that spelled out "#ShaneStrong."
As he addressed the crowd, Blakeman admitted to “choking up” as Shane’s older brother embraced the boy while crying.
Wendt later took the microphone, thanking the EMTs and doctors at Cohen’s and Boston Children’s Hospital.
“We’re so grateful and so thankful for our friends, our family, our community, the law enforcement that showed up to the scene and saved our boy,” she told the crowd.
“You all helped make our darkest days just better. Thank you.”
As of Friday, May 12, the GoFundMe campaign had raised nearly $47,000 of its $100,000 goal. Those who wish to donate can do so here.
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