Off-duty doctor Jose Valle saves Naples man’s life after collapsing on the job

The trip to the Cardiac Care Intensive Care Unit at NCH’s Rooney Heart Institute is much different this time for Faris Jawad.

This is the first chance he’s had to greet many of the team members who saved his life.

“I don’t remember anything. I just woke up after five days in the hospital,” Jawad said.

The 40-year-old is a living, breathing miracle.

In October, the was at his job at Cavo Lounge, where he works as a deejay and security.

Without warning, Jawad suddenly collapsed. It just so happened that ICU Pulmonologist Dr. Jose Valle was there.

“I went to assess him, he was unresponsive. And the point I started CPR,” Valle said.

Another patron captured a cellphone video of the doctor doing CPR and then using an AED to try and shock the heart into beating.

Valle stayed until the paramedics arrived.

“He was having a V-fib arrest, which means that the heart is not pumping, just shivering. And because of that shivering is not blood going anywhere. And that’s why CPR and making sure that the heart is compressed, distribute blood and maintain blood flow to the brain and secure the perfusion to the rest of the organs,” Valle said.

Jawad was rushed to the ER where Dr. Jeff Panozzo joined the effort.

“This was a really unique case, in that it required extensive treatment in the emergency department and extensive CPR. So first had CPR for over an hour and a half. And we, we use the device called the LUCAS device, which provides nonstop perfect, or as close as you can get to perfect CPR,” Panozzo said.

Doctors also shocked his heart, more than a dozen times.

Sometimes using two defibrillators at once.

“We did something called dual synchronous cardioversion, or defibrillation in this case, so we took two machines beans and attach them in sort of a series and then shocked them simultaneously with both machines. And that was the thing that got him to come out of the V-fib and to stabilize,” Panozzo said.

Diagnostics showed he was getting blood to his brain, making it a survival event. After working for hours, they pulled Jawa through without any permanent damage.

“It was like everybody do everything they could to rush just to save my life. And that’s made me even feel see how much people care about another,” Jawad said.

He didn’t realize it at the time, but one of the doctors on his ICU team, Valle, was the very same person physician who started CPR.

The two men are now forever bonded.

“Yes, now treating as a patient in the ICU and now I’m treating as a friend,” Valle said.

“He was on the chest performing excellent CPR I saw a video of it and you can tell the new compressions were perfect,” Panozzo said.

“The CPR is what literally saved my life and not just saved my life as every organ in my body is work perfectly normal,” Jawad said.

A testament to timely treatment, Jawad is moving forward with a grateful heart. And this serves as a reminder that anyone can learn to perform CPR. It really does save lives.