A Marlborough nurse was in the right place at the right time when another driver suffered a medical emergency on the side of the road Thursday evening.
Making her way down Concord Road with her kids in tow, Ann Marie Martell noticed something off about the man in car ahead of her.
“I saw a car pulled over, and all the doors were open.,” she said. “So I just slowed down and then backed up and said ‘do you need help?’ And there was another gentleman who had stopped and said, ‘they stopped because he’s having a heart attack.”
Martell, a veteran nurse of 22 years, jumped into action and attended to the man who was lying in the grass struggling to breathe.
With an ambulance on its way, she began CPR as the man’s wife stood by.
“My last CPR class they gave us disposable mouth guards, but I mean at that point I just did what I had to do,” she said.
The man – who Fire Lieutenant Michael Quinn said is 53 years old – was eventually taken to the hospital.
“He wasn’t doing well,” Quinn said. “He wasn’t breathing at the time and when we got to him, we took over compressions. And checked for a pulse.”
His wife thanked Martell for her quick actions just hours after her husband’s life was saved.
“She actually reached out to me last night and thanked me and said the cardiologist said the early CPR probably saved his life,” Martell said.
Doctors say the fact that that man is recovering is a rarity.
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