Police, DPW Worker Save Man's Life in South Brunswick Using CPR and Defibrillator

South Brunswick, NJ - A Bayonne man had a heart attack while installing a video camera into a South Brunswick police patrol car earlier in August, and several police officers and a DPW employee saved his life using CPR and portable defibrillator, Police Chief Raymond Hayducka said Monday.

Shortly before noon on Tuesday, Aug. 16, William Rodriguez, 60, a technician for Triangle Communications, suffered cardiac arrest as he was installing a video camera inside a squad car at the South Brunswick Department of Public Works building.

Brian Keith, a DPW employee and former Monmouth Junction First Aid Squad member, saw Rodriguez lying unconscious in the patrol vehicle, ran over to him and pulled him out of the car.

Keith laid Rodriguez on the ground and began administering CPR, as witnesses at the scene began calling 911. Officer Joseph Rausch was inside police headquarters when the call came over the police radio and he immediately grabbed a nearby portable defibrillator. He ran to his police car, and drove to the Public Works Building, arriving within two minutes of the initial call for service. He applied the defibrillator pads to Rodriguez’s chest as he and Keith continued CPR.

Rodriguez’s condition did not change after the first shock. Officer Marty Halmi, Officer Ryan Bartunek, Officer Dale Hubner, and members of the Monmouth Junction and Monroe First Aid Squad then administered CPR for several more minutes. The defibrillator advised the officers to shock Rodriguez two additional times, and the officers applied the shocks. Within a minute of that third and final shock, Rodriguez had a pulse again and he regained consciousness. He was taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and he is currently recovering.

“Mr. Keith and these officers did an amazing job of working as a team and utilizing their training and equipment to save Mr. Rodriguez," said South Brunswick Police Chief Hayducka. "This shows the importance of knowing how to administer CPR and the life changing difference you can make.”

Photo 1: CPR training/30th of January 2008/Author: Rama/Wikimedia Commons

Photo 2: An automated external defibrillator/Wikimedia Commons