Red Cross couple's story

From disaster relief to volunteering...throughout the month, News 8 Now has highlighted how the Red Cross helps our community. Elizabeth Harness tells us how the Red Cross helped a Webster couple help each other.

Sharon and Roger Lazzara of Webster have been married for 45 years...but, just a few months ago, their marriage could have ended.

“I was at the kitchen table where I always am, reading the newspaper.  All of a sudden, it was like turning the light switch off, nothing. I know nothing from that point on,” says Roger.

Roger was having cardiac arrest--an electrical problem with his heart.

“He just keeled over and I screamed...I said Roger! I immediately went to the phone and dialed 911 and they said, you have to do CPR,” says Sharon.

Sharon was lucky--she'd been trained in CPR by the American Red Cross...it saved Roger's life.

“The nurses in the hospital kept teasing him saying, you owe him big time (laughs)”

“They say a savior is born, well she was born in 1940.”

Roger is doing fine today--he suffered little damage from the event--and they credit it all to fast thinking and fast-acting with CPR.

“What happened to him, happened in an instant, there was no forewarning, nothing at all. He was just sitting there and his heart stopped.”

“Everyone should take a CPR course and ever since this has happened to Roger, we've had more people say we've got to call the Red Cross, we've got to sign up because you just never know.

Rochester's Red Cross offers a number of different training courses in addition to CPR. For more information...call the Red Cross at 241-4490.