Bucky Moran at home earlier this week. Below, Moran gets a hug from one of his saviors, Paramedic Lori Corson. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The last thing Richard ‘Bucky’ Moran remembers prior to his heart attack last month was asking a motorist to move his car from the City Centre Shopping Center in Red Bank, where he works part-time.
So he knew nothing of the Edison Township fireman who, while driving by, saw Moran crash to the pavement and pulled over to start doing CPR. He didn’t know about the Red Bank policeman who happened to be coming out of a store at the mall, and had a defibrillator in his patrol car. He was unaware of the deputy fire chief who also pulled over and contributed the CPR effort, during which Moran was revived but “coded” again at least three times. And he’s a complete blank about the EMTs and paramedics who intubated him and blasted him with twice the standard amount of juice to get his ticker working again.
But on Wednesday night, the retired mail carrier and current school crossing guard got to meet, and hug, many of his Good Samaritans, at a packed-room meeting of the borough council.
Moran, of Spring Street, was in the mall parking lot to keep it clear for customers while the nearby International Flavour Festival was underway on Sunday, April 26, when he collapsed.
Firefighter Phillip Simone of Edison Township was first on the scene, followed by Patrolman Ashon Lovick and Second Deputy Fire Chief Pete DeFazio – a retired police captain – and patrolmen Jorge Torres and Shane Dengel. EMTs Robert McCord and John Squires arrived and took over with basic lifesaving services. Each had a hand in bringing Moran back from the dead.
But their efforts weren’t sticking. Though they’d defibrillated Moran with rising amounts of electricity, following standard procedure, he kept lapsing back into cardiac arrest.
MONOC paramedic Lori Corson, riding with colleague William Beresford, arrived and put a tube down Moran’s trachea to take over his breathing. When he flatlined again, in their ambulance, they each took a defib paddle and simultaneously jolted him with 720 joules of electricity, twice the standard.
Corson told redbankgreen that the double-defib was the first she’d delivered under a new protocol, based on research showing that when all else has failed, a double jolt might do the trick.
“It puts the heart back into a normal rhythm,” she said.
After being worked on for half hour by all those hands, Moran was transported to Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, where he was stabilized. He was later transferred to Jersey Shore Medical Center in Neptune, where, on his May 6, he underwent open-heart surgery to correct three blocked arteries.
It was his 78th birthday. “I got a rebuilt heart on my birthday,” Moran said.
A 1955 graduate of Red Bank Catholic, he’s been inundated with good wishes from the kids he crosses at Maple Avenue to RBC and other nearby schools, Moran said. Last week, the championship RBC baseball team sent over a ball signed by all the players.
The council honored the Good Samaritans – including Robert Haugh, a Piscataway man who witnessed Moran’s collapse and called 911 – with resolutions of commendation, with each recipient giving Moran a handshake an a hug. Simone was not present.
A teary-eyed Moran thanked them all, “from the bottom of this repaired heart,” he said, touching his chest.
