By Jennifer H. Cunningham
WEST PATERSON— Three quick-thinking cops were honored for saving the lives of a borough family overcome by carbon monoxide poisoning.
Officer Vic Hayek, Sgt. Eileen Tiernan, and dispatcher Lucy Taylor were recognized at the Borough Council meeting Wednesday night, where Mayor Pat Lepore and Police Commissioner Dominick DiDomenico presented the trio with certificates of appreciation.
“It just demonstrates what this department is faced with every day,” Lepore said at the meeting. “They usually have to make life-or-death decisions.”
On Nov. 25, at about 8 a.m., Taylor got a call from 10-year-old Antonio Lazar, of Bush Avenue, complaining that his family was nauseated, incoherent and weak.
Taylor realized it could be a case of carbon monoxide poisoning and dispatched Hayek to the scene. Antonio answered the door complaining of a headache, and when Hayek went inside, he found Antonio’s mother, Natalie, collapsed at the foot of the stairs.
“I had to carry her out because she was basically almost passed out,” Hayek said Thursday. “She was totally out of it.”
Hayek administered oxygen to the mother and son as Tiernan arrived as his backup. They went back inside, and found Anthony’s semiconscious younger brother in the shower, carrying him out as well. All three were treated at St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center in Paterson and released.
At the council meeting, Tiernan said Hayek, an officer for one year and Mr. December for North Jersey Media Group’s Calendar Cops, deserved most of the credit for his heroism.
“He did an excellent job,” she said. “When I arrived on the scene, Officer Hayek had everything under control.”
Although firefighters on the scene told Hayek that he shouldn’t have gone inside because the carbon monoxide level was lethally high, Hayek said he reacted without thinking because lives were in jeopardy.
“You don’t think out about that when you get there,” he said. “You don’t want to just sit while these people are inside passed out, about to die.”
Firefighters later determined that a faulty furnace caused the leak.
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