Police, Wife Revive Middlesex County Man Who Suffered Cardiac Arrest

Two police officers - and the man’s wife - have been recognized for their actions which saved the life of a Middlesex County man.

South Brunswick Police Chief Raymond Hayducka credited Officer Jason Gassman and Officer Bryan Sites with saving the life of 61-year-old Robert Woods who suffered sudden cardiac arrest on the morning of Sunday Nov. 9t.

The officers responded to Woods’ home at 5:59 a.m. that morning after Woods’s wife, Lori, called 911 to report her husband was having trouble breathing, police said.

While Woods was on the phone, a dispatcher asked if her husband had any chest pain. Woods turned around and realized her husband was not responding, police said.

She immediately recognized that he had stopped breathing. Woods, who is trained in CPR as part of her job as a local school teacher, immediately began CPR. Within four minutes Gassman and Sites arrived on scene, police said.

The officers entered the home with their first aid bag, oxygen and a portable defibrillator. The officers found Woods on the floor of his second floor bedroom with his wife performing CPR. Officers took over doing compressions and applied the defibrillator pads to Woods’s chest, police said.

The defibrillator advised the officers to shock Woods, and the officers applied the shock. Within a minute the officers observed Woods open his eyes and attempt to sit up, police said.

Woods then lay with his back against the bed as he tried to control his breathing. Woods was speaking to his wife and officers when EMS and paramedics arrived minutes later. Woods was transported to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. He has been released from the hospital and continues to recover at his home.

Woods credits the officers and his wife with knowing CPR and acting quickly. “I have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving,” Woods said. “If not for their knowledge of CPR and quick actions, I would not have survived.”

Lori Woods said she could not be more thankful to the police and all who helped her. She credited her knowledge of CPR with her being part of her elementary school’s medical emergency response team.

Gassman said, “In my 24 years in EMS and my time as an officer, I have never seen anyone sit up and talk after being in cardiac arrest.”

Hayducka credited the high value the department places on training and the support from the township administration and elected officials in obtaining the best equipment.

He said, “These officers did a tremendous job utilizing all the skills, training, and equipment we have to save Mr. Woods. Their actions represent the best of what our agency does every day in trying to make a difference in lives of the people we serve.”