Red Cross honoring Uniontown man
The American Red Cross will honor Ben Sampson of Uniontown at the Red Cross’s third annual Heroes Breakfast in Pittsburgh on Thursday for saving the life of a family friend and business associate who had a heart attack during a golf outing last year.
Sampson, who will receive the Youth Hero Award, and five other people from southwestern Pennsylvania will be honored at the breakfast, which will begin at 7:30 a.m. in the Lexus Club at Consol Energy Center.
Ben Sampson, his older brother Eric Sampson, his father Jim Sampson and Gus Franzetta of Pittsburgh, a salesman for the Pennsylvania Macaroni Co., were playing in a charity golf tournament at Duck Hollow Golf Club in Menallen Township on Aug. 15 when Franzetta suffered a heart attack.
Pennsylvania Macaroni sells products to the Sampson’s family business, Mom Maruca’s Pizza Shop of Uniontown.
Ben Sampson, who was 17 at the time, and his brother performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation for about 10 minutes. Ben Sampson learned CPR while working with the Uniontown Fire Department for his Uniontown Area High School senior project.
“He insisted we putt ahead of him,” Ben said of Gus. “He stepped over his putt, and we were walking off. Then we heard a ‘thud’ on the green . . . that was Gus. He was having a massive heart attack on the green.”
Franzetta wasn’t breathing and didn’t have a pulse, but Ben and Eric Sampson kept oxygenated blood flowing through his body by performing CPR. Paramedics arrived and used a defibrillator to restart Franzetta’s heart.
“My brother and I immediately stepped into action,” Ben Sampson said. “We checked his vitals to see if he was breathing . . . my brother started CPR, and I said, ‘I’ll take over.'”
“We feared the worst. It was definitely emotional. I cried like he was my brother. We were all very upset . . . the conditions didn’t look good. When he left in the ambulance, he wasn’t breathing.”
Franzetta was flown to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, W.Va., where he received a stent and was released four days later. He made a full recovery and returned to work later.
University of Pittsburgh men’s basketball coach Jamie Dixon will be the keynote speaker at the breakfast.