On Wednesday, May 20, the FDNY Foundation joined the FDNY for the 30th Second Chance Ceremony on Staten Island. The event reunited cardiac arrest patients with the first responders who helped save their lives.
The FDNY Foundation is honored to support this amazing event, and all of FDNY EMS Week!
“That moment when we put our hands on someone’s chest it’s not just medicine that’s happening. It’s hope. It’s giving that person every single thing that we have down to our core. That’s the moment we know, it’s worth it,” said FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore.
The survivors included an FDNY lieutenant at the Fire Academy, a young basketball player who experienced cardiac arrest during a game, and a runner who collapsed while training.
Chief of Department John Esposito said: “To our rescuers, remember today and remember these people. They were given a second chance because of your actions. Because of what you did.”
The Department also honored the lifesaving rescue that inspired this decades-long tradition: Paramedics Kenn Honig and Carl Tramontana, and the son of the patient they saved, Matt Pintchik. Since that day, the Pintchik family has advocated for EMS Professionals.
The FDNY’s annual Second Chance Ceremony is made possible in part thanks to the Pintchik family’s support.
“Thank you from our family, for all of the families celebrating their second chances today,” said Matt Pintchik.
Chief of EMS Operations Paul Miano said: “Second Chance represents teamwork. It represents persistence. It represents skill, compassion, professionalism under pressure and—most importantly—it represents hope.”
The FDNY’s CPR Training Unit, which is funded by the FDNY Foundation, offers free, hands-only CPR training across New York City. To date, the Department has trained more than 200,000 New Yorkers to perform bystander CPR, including more than 80,000 high school students.
To Sign up for FDNY’s free, hands-only CPR classes, click HERE.
To view more photos from the ceremony, click HERE.