One Florida man was in the right place when he began suffering a heart attack while out to dinner with his family — little did he know there were four real-life angels at the next table.
Eddy Montero was visiting daughters and meeting one of his grandchildren for the first time in the Lake Nona region of Orlando, Florida, where they were meeting for dinner when he began to feel dizzy and collapsed.
Montero had gone into cardiac arrest, but fortunately for him, a local physician and three of her residents were finishing up their meal and quickly sprang into action.
Dr. Nicole Brenner, a physician at Florida Osceola HCA Hospital, and the three residents — Dr. Sonia Alicea, Dr. Amanda Rivera and Dr. Suhail Saad-Omer — all switched into medical mode to save the man.
All the training the residents have been through came in handy as they turned into a makeshift emergency room to help the suffering Montero.
“We quickly checked the pulse, and as soon as there was identification that there was no pulse and he was in cardiac arrest, CPR was immediately initiated,” Brenner told WESH.
Brenner says she was grateful to have the three residents with her because she is 35 weeks pregnant.
“Dr. Saad-Omer called for emergency assistance, helped identify if there was any additional support in the area. Both Dr. Alicea and Dr. Rivera were both able to initiate CPR and take over for me because it’s a little bit of a challenge,” Brenner added.
Montero referred to his rescuers as “angels appearing before him” and told the outlet from his hospital room that they are the reason is he still alive.
Fabiana Montero thanked God the doctors were so close by because they saved her father’s life.
“It just truly feels like we were meant to be there,” Brenner said.
In another coincidence, Saad-Omer was assigned to attend to Montero when he was later brought to Florida Osceola HCA Hospital.
In March, Florida’s top doctor helped save a man suffering a heart attack in an incident similar to Montero’s.
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo was attending an event in the state capital when he saw a commotion in the crowd and found a man in distress.
“We laid him on the ground and we couldn’t feel a pulse,” Ladapo told the Floridian.
Ladapo and two other doctors used a defibrillator on the man, shocking his heart, and performed CPR until he regained consciousness and was eventually transported to the hospital.
