One heroic paramedic has hit the headlines lately after saving the life of a heart attack patient – despite suffering from a heart attack himself at the same time.

Joseph Hardman has was giving CPR to a patient, who hasn’t been named, last Friday morning when, on the way to the hospital, he began having severe chest pains.

Despite realising he was also having a heart attack, he continued to provide medical assistance to the unnamed patient, even while the pain grew steadily worse. He informed his colleague that doctors would have two patients on their hands once the ambulance truck reached its destination at the hospital.

His colleague drove them both to the Detroit Medical Center’s 24/7 Cardiac Care unit and the paramedics dropped off the patient before Hardman himself went to the ER.

Hardman was placed in a room just across the hall from where the patient was being treated. Both men had identical stents put in to clear the blockage in their arteries.
Doctor Michael Brown told WXYZ that Hardman’s blockage was in what they call the ‘widow maker’ artery. He said the odds of an EMS technician having a heart attack while treating a heart attack patient were ‘one in a million.’
‘I would have to say one in a million is about appropriate,’ Brown said. ‘I haven’t ever seen it and I haven’t heard of it.’

Hardman explained how he considered himself lucky that he was already on his way to the medical center when he realized he needed medical attention. He said he was also grateful that he could keep calm and fulfill his duty as a paramedic.

He added: “That’s why we do what we do — because that’s what we live for. “That’s what EMS is: to go from a state of death or near death to watching the person walk out of the hospital with their family several days later.”

Hardman has worked as a paramedic for 15 years and has had no prior heart health issues.

Both men are expected make full recoveries.

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