Celebrity TV Doctor Dr. Oz Helps Rescue Man Who Collapsed At Newark Airport
NEWARK, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- Celebrity TV doctor Dr. Oz helped rescue a man at Newark Airport on Monday.
Just after 11 p.m., Port Authority Officer Jeffrey Croissant saw a man collapse at the baggage claim area in Terminal A.
"It happened so fast," Croissant told CBS2's Ali Bauman.
The man wasn't breathing and didn't have a pulse.
"I knelt beside him. I tried to see if he was alive, if we could talk to him, and he wasn't answering, so I checked for a pulse and I wasn't able to find one," Croissant said.
At the same time, Dr. Oz, who was also at baggage claim, rushed over to help.
"We needed to do CPR, so I started compressing on his chest. Thankfully, the Port Authority Police were there," Dr. Oz said.
Croissant did not recognize him at first with everyone wearing masks, but Dr. Oz assured him he was a doctor.
"I just kept pushing air into his lungs until he began to revive," Dr. Oz said.
"One of the other cops there pointed to him, and I said, 'Yeah, he's a doctor and he's helping us out,' and he was like, 'No, that's Dr. Oz,'" Croissant said.
Backup arrived and officers deployed a defibrillator on the man. With a few more cycles of CPR, the man started breathing on his own and was taken to a local hospital.
"By the time EMS took him away, he was alert and able to speak," Croissant said.
It was Croissant's first time initiating CPR.
"And Dr. Oz is helping me out. I really can't get better help than that," Croissant said.
The 60-year-old New Jersey man is being treated in the ICU and is expected to recover. The victim reportedly had heart surgery within the past few years.
"It's a far cry from where he was yesterday," Dr. Oz said.
"It's almost like this guy had a guardian angel," PAPD Officer Daniel Olbrich said.
A guardian angel with a daytime talk show.
