Getty Image
The Patriots may not have been able to walk away with a victory over the Dolphins when they faced off on Sunday, but a couple of firefighters who were in attendance have understandably received a ton of praise for securing a win of their own after stepping up to help a fan who had a heart attack while at the game.
The NFL has gone out of its way to ensure both players and members of the general public are prepared to respond to the kind of cardiac incident Bills safety Damar Hamlin fell victim to during a showdown with the Bengals in 2022, and while teams obviously have medical personal onsite to attend to spectators who need aid inside the stadium, there’s only so much to can do to ensure a prompt response.
According to Boston.com, a scary scene unfolded at Gillette Stadium on Sunday night when an unnamed man believed to be in his 50s collapsed prior to kickoff, which resulted in police officers in the area rushing to his location.
That scene caught the attention of Mark McCullough and Anthony Colella, two friends who respectively work as firefighters in Needham, Massachusetts and Johnston, Rhode Island.
The two men quickly headed to tend to the fan, and after Colella confirmed he wasn’t breathing, he began to perform CPR until the man was successfully resuscitated (he and McCullough continued to tend to the victim—who’d also cut his head after falling—until EMS arrived).
In an interview with NBC10, Colella said the fan may have choked on some food prior to having a heart attack, and while there was no official information concerning his condition as of this writing, he was alert and talking when he was placed on the stretcher that transported him to the ambulance that took him to a nearby hospital for further treatment.