TIMES SQUARE — Police officers on post-New Year’s Eve cleanup duty were able to resuscitate an unconscious tourist by performing CPR and AED defibrillation Saturday, the NYPD said.
Officers including Xhoana Tozaj were collecting barriers used to control traffic during New Year’s Eve festivities around 9:20 a.m. on Jan. 2 when a driver at West 52nd Street and Broadway hailed them over to help a 60-year-old passenger who had stopped breathing in his yellow taxi, police said.
The Scottish tourist, who had been riding in the taxi with his wife, was unresponsive and had “labored breathing and pale skin,” according to police.
After officers carried the man to the pavement and took off his jacket, Tozaj started to administer CPR chest compressions, assisted by Midtown North precinct officers David Basquez and Matthew Widmer, police said.
Soon after, Midtown North officers William Helbock and Timothy Landy arrived at the scene with an AED, and after determining the tourist did not have a pulse, administered two shocks as the initial responders kept administering CPR.
EMS transported the tourist to NYU Medical Center, where he was listed in stable condition Saturday.
The man, identified by the New York Post as Alan Black, told the outlet he went into cardiac arrest in the cab.
“They did an amazing job,” Black said of the NYPD officers who came to his rescue. “I thank them very much.”
On Dec. 10, meanwhile, another police officer and a sergeant from the Midtown North Precinct saved a man by performing CPR on him, according to the precinct’s Twitter account.
