By Matthew Sockol
Staff Writer
FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP – The life-saving actions of five Freehold Township residents have been recognized by the Township Committee.
Municipal officials recently thanked and honored Colleen Gewirtz, Shannon Rittberg, Kristen Schandall, Erica Sinatra and Denise Sfrisi for their quick thinking and actions, and presented each resident with a certificate. Schandall was absent when the certificates were presented.
The salute stems from actions the residents performed on April 10 during a youth travel soccer match that was being played by teams from Freehold Township and Howell at the Jackson Mills Road soccer fields. During the match, a coach from the Howell team collapsed. The residents located and used an automated external defibrillator (AED) and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the man until emergency responders arrived.
“We were only three minutes into the game and one parent noticed that (the coach) had passed out and was unresponsive,” Sfrisi said. “We went over and got the AED and we did CPR for (about) 25 minutes until the ambulance got there. We had to shock him (with the AED) four times.”
Rittberg, who is a physician, said she believed an abnormal heart rhythm (arrhythmia) is what caused the coach to collapse.
The residents said the coach recovered after having a heart valve replaced. They said he returned to coach the Howell team against Freehold Township in May.
“You saved a person’s life,” Mayor Barbara McMorrow said to the women. “I am so proud of each and every one of you. It’s an incredible story.”
In other business, the committee honored Ross Kasun, superintendent of schools of the Freehold Township K-8 School District, for being named the Monmouth County Superintendent of the Year. Kasun, who is serving his fifth year as superintendent in Freehold Township, received a proclamation from the governing body.
And, the committee promoted Freehold Township Patrol Officer James Kolis to the rank of sergeant. Kolis has worked in law enforcement since 1992 when he was a member of the Middletown Township Police Department. He was hired by the Freehold Township Police Department in 1998.
