MTA hero is a super conductor
An F-train conductor performed lifesaving CPR on a passenger having a heart attack in Queens, and then coolly continued making his rush-hour stops.
Kevin Bartsch said he was on a southbound train heading into the Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue station on Wednesday at around 6:20 p.m. when passengers alerted him to an unconscious man aboard.
“I found this gentleman slumped over on the bench, people were saying he’s dead,” Bartsch, 50, recalled. “I noticed his lips were blue. I checked for a carotid pulse. He did not have one.”
The conductor — who has been with the MTA for two years and learned CPR during his days as a volunteer FDNY EMT — pumped the man’s chest.
Bartsch started to move out of the way when a dispatched EMT arrived but was encouraged to keep working while the medic prepped a defibrillator.
The unidentified man in his mid-50s jolted back to consciousness before the defibrillator was needed.
“He was combative and wanted to get up,” a teary Bartsch recalled. “I said, ‘Listen, you just died,’ and I got him to lie back down.”
A rider who saw the save was awestruck by Bartsch.
“He was amazing and was really heroic,” Amy Harris gushed. “He saved that man’s life.” Bartsch was more modest. “When it all was going on, training mode took over,” he said. “I did what I had to do.”
He continued on his route as soon as the man was off the train and on his way to Elmhurst Hospital.
“It hit me after [that] I just saved somebody and was up all night reflecting on it,” he said.