Eagle-eyed bridge and tunnel cops saved the life of a Staten Island man — and later visited him and his ecstatic wife in the hospital, authorities said.
Robert Stanzione, 54, was feeling sick and tried to drive to Staten Island University North Tuesday afternoon, but missed his exit and ended almost driving on the Verrazano Bridge.
Before the toll plaza, he pulled onto a ramp that leads to an employee parking lot at Major Avenue and Lillypond Avenue, and told Aimen Joseff, a senior project manager at the Verrazano, that he needed help shortly after 3:30 p.m.
Joseff flagged two bridge and tunnel cops after Stanzione went unconscious and slumped over his wheel, according to a source.
Officer Paul Padilla, a former army medic who served in Iraq, couldn’t find a pulse and Stanzione was not breathing. He put the pads of a defibrillator on him, while Officer December Bailey, administered oxygen.
Quick-thinking Padilla shocked the victim and then gave him chest compressions, as did maintenance supervisor Daniel Fortunato. They were thrilled when Stanzione began breathing.
Bailey, also an army medic, said the moment felt amazing. “Our training kicked in, and that was what brought him back to life.”
EMS rushed to the scene, and took Stanzione to Staten Island University Hospital North, where he had a heart attack. Stanzione said that the cops kept him from going into cardiac arrest at that moment.
“Mr. Padilla prevented me from dying. He and the doctors saved my life. A doctor told me today ‘you were gone. You were on your last bit of life,” said Stanzione. “ “The doctors said that the first couple of minutes were critical,” said his beaming wife Robin from his bedside. “If they hadn’t acted correctly in those first few minutes, he wouldn’t be here. Thank God for the TBTA, thank God for the doctors.”
Stanzione has since stabilized.
“The doctor said the gentleman beat the widowmaker because of us,” said Padilla, who visited Stanzione Thursday, with Bailey. “We walked in and he and his wife very emotional. They started crying and thanking us repeatedly. I felt great.”