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A Detroit paramedic had a heart attack today while perform CPR on another man having a heart attack. Joseph Hardman is being called a hero for his dedication to the job, according to CNN.
The 11- year EMS veteran began feeling “an explosion in [his] heart,” according to ABC.
“It wasn’t painful but was just a sensation of an expanding feeling in my heart. It wasn’t gripping and it didn’t slow me down, but it was just there,” said Hardman.
Forty-year-old Hardman continued performing the life-saving technique even has his condition worsened. He didn’t even tell his partner what was happening. When Hardman got back in the ambulance with the patient, he finally told his co-worker about the situation.
“I was worried I was going to pass out,” he said. “I stuck my head in the window in the front of the truck and said, ‘Hey, I think I’m going to have to be admitted. I’m having chest pains.'”
Hardman was having severe chest pain and sweating profusely.
Both the patient and the paramedic received identical stents, removing their artery blockages, according to the NY Daily News. The blocked artery in both the men was the stenotic left main coronary artery, nicknamed the “widow maker.”
Hardman is expected to be released from hospital sometime Monday, but likely faces months of rehab before being able to return to work.