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Firefighter saves hockey fan having heart attack

A 20-year-old firefighter/EMT and an ER nurse in the stands saved his life after rushing over to perform CPR

San Jose Mercury News

SAN JOSE, Calif. — As he has done countless other times, Sharks fan Brian Ragusa stood for the National Anthem at the late regular-season game.

But this time was different. He slumped back down into his seat at the Shark Tank, suffering a massive heart attack in front of a stunned crowd that ended up witnessing the best save of the night in the stands, and not on the ice.

He is alive today to help tell the story thanks to an astonishing series of fortuitious events that included the quick reactions of two good Samaritans who work in emergency medicine and coincidentally were sitting nearby — as well as the aid of Ragusa’s friend, a San Jose firefighter who also happened to respond to the call.

“Boy, did I ever have some angels on my shoulder that night,” said Ragusa, who is recovering from quadruple-bypass surgery and talking about the incident for the first time. “So many things had to happen for me to survive. It’s just mind-boggling.”

His friend, Sergio Arellano couldn’t agree more. Ragusa had invited him to the game, but Arellano declined because he had to work at the San Jose Fire Department. Yet Arellano ended up going to the Shark Tank anyway, unaware that he would have a hand in saving his friend’s life.

“I’m still in shock thinking about it,” Arellano said. “Heck, I find it hard to believe.”

Ragusa, 57, a season-ticket holder who lives in San Ramon and works as a sales rep for a printing company, has been a hockey fan since the late 1960s when the long-gone Seals arrived in the Bay Area. Since 1993, when the expansion Sharks moved into the downtown arena now officially called SAP Center, he has missed only about 20 games.

Usually, he sits with wife Lisa in Section 209, Seats 9 and 10. But on April 3, with the rival Los Angeles Kings in town for a late regular-season game — just weeks before the same team would bounce the Sharks from the Stanley Cup playoffs in the first round — Lisa couldn’t attend because of an event with her company. Ragusa reached out to Arellano, another fan whom he has known for nearly two decades.

“That day he sent me a text, saying ‘I know it’s last-minute, but you want to go to the game?’” Arellano said. “I said that I was sorry but I couldn’t.”

Ragusa decided to attend by himself.

“If I hadn’t gone, I would have suffered the heart attack at home,” he said. “My wife would have found me five hours later, and then she would have been attending a funeral instead.”

There were no overt warning signs. Although there is a history of heart disease in his family, Ragusa was symptom-free. He watches what he eats, rarely drinks and doesn’t smoke.

His last memory is walking into the arena, going up the escalator and picking up a statistics sheet.

The Shark Tank, always sold out with 17,562 fans, is one of the NHL’s loudest buildings. But a hushed silence descends for the anthem, and that’s when the scary scene unfolded.

One row behind, Jonathan Hall was standing with his date when “everyone started freaking out.” But Hall, a 20-year-old EMT and firefighter from Modesto, didn’t.

In the next section over, Dotty Parker was with her family. Her husband alerted Parker, an emergency room nurse at the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, to the commotion.

Both rushed over to Ragusa and began performing CPR.

“Even though I’m an ER nurse and do this every day, I had never done it out in public before,” said Parker, 33, of Salinas. “But even though we were on him quickly, I didn’t think he was going to survive because the statistics really were against him.”

Chris Salazar, a guest service coordinator at SAP and Marine Corps reservist, arrived and was followed by arena EMTs. Ragusa was carried to a stairwell, where a defibrillator was used to get his heart beating.

When San Jose firefighters from nearby Station 1 got to the arena, Arellano was among them. He had an uneasy feeling passing by Ragusa’s seats. But the heart attack victim’s face was covered by an oxygen mask and Arellano didn’t recognize Ragusa — even when he continued treating him on the ambulance ride to O’Connor Hospital.

“We were trying to get him back, and I was doing chest compressions,” Arellano said. “In a situation like that, we’re just so focused on doing our jobs. I never really looked at his face.”

The next day, Arellano still had a nagging feeling and called O’Connor. Only then did he learn that Ragusa had been the man with the heart attack.

Ragusa was kept in an induced coma for four days before being transferred to the Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Medical Center where he had surgery. The cardiologist told him the credit for his survival goes to the prompt action of those in the arena because he never lost oxygen to his brain.

Arellano, struck by the incredible odds of having helped save his friend, went out and bought lottery tickets.

“I thought, ‘He was lucky, and I might get lucky, too,’” said Arellano, 42, of San Carlos. “I didn’t win, but that’s OK. He survived and that’s the main thing.”

As for Ragusa, he admits to being a little embarrassed about the ruckus, but hopes his story will lead others to get regular check-ups.

“I’m just very thankful,” he said. “Now I feel like I have to make good on this and be a better person.”

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