The airplane left Mumbai, India at 11:40 p.m. on February 10. It was a long flight, 16 \u00bd hours, and Niketan \u201cNick\u201d Diora was relaxing. He put on a movie, \u201cHotel Transylvania.\u201d He had been in India for his cousin\u2019s wedding and was looking forward to returning to New Jersey. It was a great wedding.<\/p>\n
Suddenly, about three hours into the flight, there was a commotion three rows in front of him. A man, who appeared to be in his mid-40s, was in a panic.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had stroke-like symptoms,\u201d Mr. Diora said. \u201cOver the public address system, the crew asked if there was a doctor or nurse on the plane. There wasn\u2019t, but I figured I was the closest thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed. Mr. Diora holds certifications in Lifesaving, Water Safety Instructor, CPR and AED (automated external defibrillator). They came in handy that night.<\/p>\n
\u201cI cleared the row he was in, and had him lay down,\u201d he said. \u201cI told him to breathe deeply as much as he could and I checked his pulse, which was irregular. I asked the crew to get me a defibrillator, which fortunately happened to be right over his seat.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust then he lost consciousness and his pulse was gone. So I took a scissors to cut away his shirt and opened up the defibrillator. I gave him two shocks. On the second shock, his pulse rate came back and so did his consciousness. It turned out it was a heart attack.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Diora was well prepared for this emergency. He\u2019s taken seven or eight classes in lifesaving and first aid at Middlesex County College, all from Rhonda Zampetti, who has taught at MCC since 2000 and has been a Red Cross instructor for 25 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s a great teacher,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ms. Zampetti explained how the defibrillator works.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe AED shocks the heart, and temporarily stops it so it can re-set,\u201d she said. \u201cI was really proud of him. He told me the story as I was teaching a CPR class, so I got to hear it in front of my students.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Diora emigrated from India with his parents in 2000. He spent two years at Old Bridge High School before coming to Middlesex in 2002, majoring in mathematics and education. He graduated in 2006 and transferred to Rutgers, graduating in December of 2010. He has his own diamond wholesale business, which has four employees.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no question he saved this man\u2019s life,\u201d Ms. Zampetti said. \u201cWithin four to six minutes, brain damage sets in. Nick not only saved his life, but by helping him so quickly, he has given him a high quality of life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The airplane left Mumbai, India at 11:40 p.m. on February 10. It was a long flight, 16 \u00bd hours, and Niketan \u201cNick\u201d Diora was relaxing. He put on a movie, \u201cHotel Transylvania.\u201d He had been in India for his cousin\u2019s wedding and was looking forward to returning to New Jersey. It was a great wedding. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":849,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-845","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mccdemosite1.devsiteurl.com\/mcc-publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mccdemosite1.devsiteurl.com\/mcc-publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mccdemosite1.devsiteurl.com\/mcc-publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mccdemosite1.devsiteurl.com\/mcc-publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mccdemosite1.devsiteurl.com\/mcc-publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mccdemosite1.devsiteurl.com\/mcc-publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/845\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mccdemosite1.devsiteurl.com\/mcc-publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mccdemosite1.devsiteurl.com\/mcc-publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}