Detroit Paramedic Suffers Heart Attack While Treating Heart Attack Patient

We’ve all heard stories about individuals who are considered heroes because they risked their lives trying to save the life of someone else. This story, on the other hand, ups the ante and could very well make the medical books.

The story began over the weekend in Detroit when 40-year-old paramedic Joseph Hardman was caring for a heart-attack victim and Hardman began having his own heart attack.

According to the Detroit Free Press, Hardman was performing CPR on his patient on the way to the hospital when his heart attack occurred. Hardman dropped his patient off at Detroit Medical Center’s Cardiac Unit, and then went to the emergency room himself to be treated.

Doctors used stents on both men to clear blockages in their arteries. Doctors say that Hardman’s blockage was so serious, chances are he would’ve died had he suffered the heart attack anywhere else.

Hardman told Detroit’s WXYZ-TV that “If I hadn’t been in the position I was in, I would have been deceased.”

Hardman has been working the streets for 15 years and has no prior history of heart problems.

The scenario Hardman went through is the same one he has treated so many times before.

"I can only say it's a miracle, and that man's a hero," EMS Union President Joe Barney said. "Here's a guy that was having a heart attack, picked up a patient for all essential purposes was dead."