Kids & Family

Officers Lauded for Saving Heart Attack Victim at OC Airport

Joe Mazzarella suffered a massive heart attack last week at John Wayne Airport while trying to board a plane back to Northern California.

A man traveling through Orange County's John Wayne Airport suffered a massive heart attack last week, but is recovering today thanks to four determined sheriff's special officers, ABC 7 Los Angeles reported.

Joe Mazzarella collapsed last Saturday at the airport while walking to the gate to board a plane headed back to his home in Sacramento, according to ABC 7. Orange County Sheriff's Department Special Officers Sean Fowler, Alex Bacon, David Rapponotti and Frank Kuskie, who are assigned to the airport, immediately sprung into action after getting the call about a man who had collapsed. Mazzarella had no air for about four minutes, but the SSOs worked on him tirelessly using CPR, chest compressions and a defibrillator to restart his heart.

"We were telling him he can't give up, we're not going to and it's not his time yet," Rapponoti told ABC 7.

On Monday Mazzarella met with the special officers who saved his life when they visited him at an Orange County hospital.

Doctors said Mazzarella should be back home in Northern California just in time for Christmas.

See the video of Mazzarella meeting with the airport heroes at abclocal.go.com/kabc/video.

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