Pizzo, soldier “hero by accident”: saves a neighbor’s life with cardiac massage

He is hospitalized at the Pugliese-Ciaccio in Catanzaro, but if Pasquale Elia can tell his story today, he owes it to the tenacity of the Coast Guard deputy chief Carmelo Vallone, and to his passion for Juve… Because last Monday he was watching the match at his parents’ house, when he heard the desperate screams of the 61-year-old’s wife and daughter on the floor below. He had no hesitation and for 20 minutes he performed cardiac massage, continuing even when the first 118 rescue team, having detected the absence of a heartbeat, had established that there was nothing more to be done. “When I arrived – he says – he was on the floor, dying and I started to perform cardiac massage; when the ambulance arrived, they applied the suction cups for the electrocardiogram and, noticing that he was flat, they signaled me to stop because there was nothing more to be done…”. However, “I got angry, shouting that we had to save him and I continued. I am happy to have brought a smile back to an entire family”. He remained kneeling to perform the massage despite the little hope of success. When the second ambulance arrived, “they gave him two or three shocks with the defibrillator and his heartbeat started again”. Then the emergency transfer to Catanzaro, for surgery. With the maneuvers performed, Vallone saved the man’s life by pumping oxygen to the brain: he was in the right place at the right time and “he restarted his heart, because if he hadn’t insisted…”. The man’s wife, Daniela Ingenuo, cannot complete the sentence. And she expresses her gratitude to the “accidental hero”. In the meantime, Mayor Sergio Pititto has sent a request for civil and military commendation to the Harbour Office and Prefecture. Moreover, he knows both of them because it happened in his condominium: “Carmelo is a very well-prepared boy and has a high sense of duty. He is a positive example for the community”.