Jeff Himler
Tribune-Review, Greensburg, Pa.
(TNS)
A dip in the pool last month could have turned fatal for a Jeannette man, but for a team of first responders and two Greensburg recreation staffers who knew how to use an automated external defibrillator.
Lara Stinebiser was on hand at this week’s Greensburg council meeting to thank the city workers, local medics and volunteers who rushed to help her father, 69-year-old Al Stanislaw, when he suffered a cardiac arrest Jan. 9 while swimming in the Aerobic Center pool at the city’s Lynch Field.
The nine people who provided Stanislaw emergency assistance also received certificates of appreciation from Mayor Robert Bell and were recognized for their service with challenge coins from Ken Bacha, chief operations officer of Mutual Aid Ambulance Service.
Stinebiser said her father is recuperating at home after spending several weeks in intensive care and being fitted with a pacemaker.
“Overall he’s doing OK,” she said. “He’s still, obviously, healing.
“It was very unexpected. He was a regular swimmer and had no known heart issues.”
When two local firefighters — Forbes Road Assistant Chief Steven Rosatti and Greensburg Assistant Deputy Chief James Spisso — arrived at the scene Jan. 9, city aquatic director Rachel Carloni and her husband, general manager Roman Carloni, were performing CPR on Stanislaw next to the pool.
Roman Carloni, who also is a lieutenant in the Greensburg Fire Department, said he responded from the front desk when his wife reported the emergency and he found her in the pool, pulling the unconscious victim to the side.
The pair placed Stanislaw on a backboard and “began wiping the patient off with towels to attach the AED pads to the patient,” said Greensburg fire Chief Tom Bell. He said the Carlonis used the device to deliver a shock to the man and performed chest compressions on him until an ambulance crew arrived.
“The quick response of both Rachel and Lt. Carloni is credited by and large with the success in saving the victim,” Tom Bell said.
Ambulance crew members who took over Stanislaw’s emergency care were paramedic-district chief Robert Noonan, paramedic-supervisor Joseph Mueller, paramedic Andrew Dixon and EMTs Kaitlyn Nieves and James Prinkey.
City officials also recognized a quartet of Greensburg first responders and a neighbor who helped pull a man to safety from his burning home on Jan. 6 in the 600 block of Jack Street.
The man, Tom Bell said, remains in the hospital.
Firefighter Colten Houser spotted the flames as he was returning to his nearby home and alerted 911 on his portable radio. Fellow firefighter Brett Steele and Greensburg police officers Jonathan Murphy and Adam Gogets arrived quickly and learned from a neighbor that the resident was just inside the front door, said Tom Bell.
“The five together worked to retrieve the victim and extracted him to safety outside,” he said.
He said Greensburg firefighters promptly doused the flames and saved the home.
Tom Bell expressed pride in the first responders who helped in the two incidents.
“Every day they go above and beyond the call of duty,” he said. “It shows the passion they have for that job.”
Jeff Himler is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jeff by email at jhimler@triblive.com or via Twitter .
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