When John Manzione heard his neighbors screaming, the newly retired Maspeth firefighter didn’t think twice about leaping from his backyard and sprinting to help two distraught parents whose 22-month-old son had fallen into a pool during a July 4 barbecue.
John Manzione and his wife, Darlaina, stand in their Maspeth back yard, from where the two heard their neighbors screaming for help on July 4. John Manzione rushed to the scene, with his wife not far behind him, where he performed life-saving CPR on a 22-month-old boy. Anna Gustafson/The Forum Newsgroup
“I knew it was critical to start CPR as soon as possible,” said Manzione, who was a firefighter with Engine 291 in Ridgewood for 32 years before retiring last February. “They had pulled the baby from the pool, and I started to perform CPR with chest compressions. I turned him on his side and continued CPR and the baby luckily responded and started breathing.”
Emergency responders appeared not long after Manzione performed CPR, and the little boy was brought to Elmhurst Hospital Center. He was then transported to Long Island Jewish Medical Center for additional monitoring.
After decades of firefighting, this certainly wasn’t the first time Manzione has saved a life – and the lifelong Maspeth resident said he’s always grateful for his years of training for emergencies.
“This is the profession I chose – when the alarm comes in, someone needs help and we rush there and do what can do to help,” Manzione said. “You do what you have to do.”
Manzione, who had been celebrating his mom’s birthday, as well as Independence Day, at a barbecue in his backyard when his neighbors sounded the cry for help, was originally inspired to join the FDNY because his uncle was a firefighter and he joined Engine 291 not long after graduating from Grover Cleveland High School in Ridgewood.
The Maspeth resident said the job evolved quickly after he joined the department, with the city requiring firefighters to become trained as first responders not long after he began – something for which he said he is forever grateful.
“I’ve had to perform CPR many times in my career – I even had to perform the Heimlich on my daughter at home,” Manzione said.
For anyone facing what could be a disastrous situation – like a child falling into a pool – Manzione said it is critical to keep a level head and respond immediately.
“You have to keep your head; getting hysterical does not help,” he said. “It’s important to initiate some sort of life-rescuing method – establish an airway, breaths, circulation. You have to breathe life into them immediately.”
Officials across the country stress the importance of poolside safety, with drowning ranking fifth among the leading causes of injury death in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Every day, about 10 people die from drowning – and of these, two are 14 years old or younger, according to the CDC.
The CDC has a number of water safety tips, including making sure children and adults can swim, learning CPR, installing fencing around a pool and including a self-closing gate with latches out of the reach of children, and clearing the pool and deck of toys so youngsters are not tempted to enter the pool area unsupervised.
By Anna Gustafson
