Darien Police Officer Gregory Benedetto was recently thanked by a Darien woman for saving the life of her husband, who experienced a heart attack during a family dispute in 2013.
Darien Police Officer Gregory Benedetto (from a 2015 photo by Darien Police)
“Somehow, ‘Thank you’ just isn’t enough to say to the person who has changed the lives of our family,” the woman wrote in a Jan. 7 letter to Benedetto which was shared at a recent meeting of the Darien Police Commission. “When you saved my husband’s life, you also saved the lives of our entire family.”
(We’ve reprinted the letter below.)
Benedetto later received an award from the Police Department in connection with the incident — not his first award in connection with saving a life (a month before, he had received department awards for saving lives).
Benedetto was the first officer to arrive after police were called to the scene. Soon after he got there, an elderly man (not involved directly in the altercation) walked out of the house and fell into a large bush.
The officer ran over to the man only to find he was unconscious, had no pulse and had stopped breathing. Benedetto called for an ambulance and more officers to come to the scene, then ran back to his patrol car, grabbed a first aid bag and an AED (automated external defibrillator).
He pulled the man out from the bush and behind a vehicle to provide cover — at the time, the suspect in the domestic dispute was still in the house, and yelling and screaming could be heard from an open second-story window.
Benedetto used the AED on the man, administering a shock, then started giving him cardiopulmonary resuscitation. As two other officers arrived at the scene, one helped give the patient oxygen, the other confronted the suspect through the open window.
While Benedetto gave the elderly man chest compressions, the man opened his eyes and began to speak softly. Benedetto continued administering to the man until a Darien EMS-Post 53 ambulance arrived at the scene. The suspect in the house was arrested.
Sgt. Jeremiah Marron Jr. — who happened to be the shift supervisor that day and who was the first officer to confront the suspect — nominated Benedetto for an award involving the incident. Marron wrote in his nomination:
Here’s the letter sent to Benedetto:
