EMS suffers heart attack during CPR, still saves patient

An EMS technician in Detroit suffered a heart attack while performing CPR on a patient Saturday, and dropped his patient off alive before being treated in the ER himself.

Union representative Joe Barney says Joseph Hardman "nearly died, had to go to surgery."

Hardman “dropped his patient off alive while he was having a heart attack, then went to the ER," Barney said. "He survived, and he’s in fact laying three beds over from the guy he brought into the hospital.”

Thirty EMS technicians have left the department over work conditions and loss of pay, Barney said, as Detroit's public services are stretched ever thinner. The department is down to about 150 from 304 eight years ago.

"The stress of the job is getting to be too much,” Barney said after speaking to Hardman, who is recovering. "He’s scared."