Point Pleasant Borough Police and First Aid Squad Commended for Saving a Life

Three borough police officers and six Point Boro First Aid Squad members were commended at the Tuesday night Borough Council meeting for saving a local man's life.

Mayor William Schroeder handed certificates to each of the nine first responders who worked together to save a man who had collapsed in his home on Old Bridge Avenue on Jan. 30.

Schroeder said the team worked together "like a dream" and that the borough thanks them for their outstanding work.

Schroeder said in an interview on Wednesday, "It was a pleasure to present them with certificates on behalf of the borough and to thank them for the incredible, dedicated service they performed.

"What they did is a realization of a dream we have for Point Pleasant, to have our public servants performing at their best," Schroeder said.

The man they helped went from unconscious on Jan. 30 to walking out of a hospital on his own two weeks later, said Lt. Robert Lokerson, one of the emergency personnel who had assisted at the scene.

"It was a good save," Lokerson said at the meeting.

After the meeting, Lokerson said a man in his 50s who lives on Old Bridge Avenue had taken a walk outdoors with a woman he lives with during the evening of Jan. 30, returned home and collapsed inside his house.

The woman called police at 7:45 p.m., said Capt. Richard Larsen on Wednesday. Officers Brad McNally and Chris Leonhardt were the first to arrive and quickly hooked up a defibrillator and used that and CPR to help revive the man, Lokerson said.

A defibrillator delivers a therapeutic dose of electrical energy to the heart, helping the heart muscle to work normally.

The Point Boro First Aid Squad then treated him and transported him to Ocean Medical Center's Brick Hospital, Larsen said.

At some point after that, the man was transferred to Jersey Shore Medical Center.

Two weeks later, the man was well enough to walk out of Jersey Shore on his own, Lokerson said.

Besides the three police officers, the following First Aid Squad members were also awarded certificates: James Garon; Rob McSweeney; Dan Gaudette; John Welsh; Jesse Waterson and Neal Skerletts.

Larsen said police are not releasing the man's name because he may not want his personal medical information released publicly.