![\"\"](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Larry-Friel-story-Ofc.-Nick-Marozzi-300x200.jpg\")
The Town of Farmington Police arrived minutes later with Police Officer Nick Marozzi administering an automated-external defibrillator (AED) shock to restart Friel\u2019s heart. Plus, more first responders helped from the Farmington Fire Department and the AMR ambulance team of Paramedic Thomas Mazurski and EMT Jennifer Northrup rushed Friel across Farmington Avenue to the Emergency Department at UConn John Dempsey Hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I saw that professional medical help was there, I knew it was going to be okay,\u201d recalls Irwin. \u201cIt was an absolute miracle!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd Jill even came to UConn Health to visit me in the hospital,\u201d shared Friel heartwarmingly who spent 9 inpatient days at UConn John Dempsey Hospital. He was successfully discharged from Cherry Brook Health Care Center in Canton on December 15 after completing his rehabilitation.<\/p>\n Friel adds: \u201cHer saving my life with CPR is a gift.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr. Christopher Pickett remarked, \u201cI cared for Larry after his cardiac arrest. He was so jovial, and I am happy for his successful outcome. The take home message of his story is the importance of delivering lifesaving CPR,\u201d shared Pickett, Director of the Pat and Jim Calhoun Cardiology Center at UConn Health. \u201cCPR was instrumental in his survival without any neurological damage from his cardiac arrest.\u201d<\/p>\n Friel further explains, \u201cI owe Jill, I love her, and she is now an extension of me. Since she saved my life we have become brother and sister and will always be connected.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a huge fan of UConn! I am grateful to everyone working there,\u201d says Friel. \u201cThey are awesome! By the Grace of God, my heartfelt gratitude also goes out to the blessed medical team at UConn John Dempsey Hospital, who brought me back to life.\u201d<\/p>\n The care, kindness and compassion at UConn Health was exemplary,\u201d says Friel. \u201cMy special thanks going out to Dr. Pickett, Dr. Lima, Dr. Frondella, Dr. Soriano, Tiffany & Shannon in PT, Adidja in RT and a young nurse, named Brittany, from Simsbury where I grew up.\u201d<\/p>\n The reason for Friel\u2019s cardiac arrest is still unknown. An implantable cardioverter-defibrillator\u00a0(ICD) was minimally invasively implanted under the skin of his chest in the Electrophysiology Laboratory at UConn Health by Pickett and his EP team. The device will monitor his heart for any dangerous arrythmias that might occur and shock his heart to restart should it ever stop again.<\/p>\n \u201cThanks to CPR I lived, and my life was saved! \u00a0I have always believed in miracles and now I\u2019m living it,\u201d said Friel. \u201cI\u2019m still here and I\u2019m grateful!\u201d<\/p>\n His number one mission in life is now spreading the importance of CPR to others.<\/p>\n \u201cTake a CPR class. Even if you never use it,\u201d says Friel. \u201cIt is so worth it if you can help save a life. Also, urge your friends and family to learn CPR too. Because without it, you or they might not survive.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy survival story is pretty dramatic,\u201d says Friel whose life has always been in the dramatic arts. He got the acting bug in high school while attending Avon Old Farms. He\u2019s been in show business his whole life, appeared in soap operas, episodics, commercials, and now has a production company, celebrating 22 years in Las Vegas, Nevada.<\/p>\n Thanks to his second chance at life after surviving cardiac arrest, Friel is looking forward to \u201ceverything\u201d and especially getting back to his family and living life to the fullest.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been saved for something,\u201d says Friel. \u201cAngels were looking over me, Jill being one of them and everyone who helped save my life. Many thanks UConn Health.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDr. Pickett and the large gang at UConn Health were absolutely wonderful!\u201d says Friel. \u201cUConn being a teaching hospital is really a positive!\u201d<\/p>\n Larry Friel’s new mission in life is spreading the importance of lifesaving CPR to others. Find out more about his cardiac arrest survival story thanks to a bystander’s help and where you can learn CPR. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":194064,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1969,179],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1873],"class_list":["post-194058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cardiology","category-uconn-health"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 07:14:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194058"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":194205,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194058\/revisions\/194205"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/194064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194058"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=194058"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=194058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/AMR-ambulance-team-Larry-Friel-story-Mazurski_Northrop-1-300x214.jpg\")
\nTo find an online or in-person CPR class near you in Connecticut visit the <\/em>American Heart Association website<\/em><\/a> or the <\/em>Red Cross website.<\/em><\/a> It could save a life someday!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"