BOSTON — An essential grocery store worker was headed to work on an MBTA bus on Wednesday morning when he had a heart attack. A police officer jumped into save him. Thankfully, timing was everything.
“She pulled directly across from our detail, our street detail, and waved us over frantically,” said Brookline Police Officer Sean Williams.
Williams is a 26-year veteran of the Brookline Police Department. He was working a construction detail at Washington and Pearl streets when the MBTA bus driver was flagging him down.
“She opened up both doors, and we were able to see immediately, the subject laying on his front,” said Williams.
While most of us are at home working, the 64-year-old man and his friend were going into work at a local grocery store on the city bus.
“He was bloody in the face, he fell quiet a distance from his chair, down to the lower entrance of the bus. He didn’t appear to be breathing. When I checked for his pulse, I didn’t feel any,” said Williams.
Williams says, the grocery store worker had a heart attack on the bus, while he was on the way to work.
“We began to prepare for the AED, defibrillation by removing his shirt, cutting his shirt open. The AED showed up right away, we placed it, myself and a Brookline firefighter from Engine 2 placed it on him. It gave him a shock,” said Williams.
But the first shock wasn’t reviving the grocery store employee.
“It advised us to give CPR, gave him CPR, did chest compressions,” said Williams.
Moments after, the man gave them signs of life, he was rushed to Brigham and Women’s hospital.
"Whether it’s the coronavirus or other circumstances, I will do my duty, my job. This is a tough time to have any kind of medical emergency happen. With everything that’s going on and the death that’s happening in this country, that I assisted and making sure that another one didn’t happen," Williams said.
The 64-year-old man remains hospitalized at Brigham and Women’s hospital. His family members have been notified about his condition.
The hardest part right now for his family is that he was working so he could provide for his family, and put food on the table.
Download the free Boston 25 News app for up-to-the-minute push alerts
>> Complete local and national coronavirus coverage here
RESOURCES:
- Massachusetts Coronavirus Information
- Boston Coronavirus Information
- Follow us on Facebook and Twitter | Watch Boston 25 NOW