Man credits his dog, new Queens facility for saving his life during a heart attack
QUEENS (PIX11) -- A Queens dog is being hailed as a hero after he woke his owner up while having a heart attack. The man now wants to share his story to let people know positive outcomes are possible after having a heart attack.
Dimitrious Sotiropoulos, 48, from Astoria, said his one-year-old Toy Poodle named Polo loves to play with toys and give kisses and cuddle, but Polo seldom, if ever, barks. That’s why what happened on April 25 at midnight is so extraordinary.
“This little guy started barking and barking to wake me up. He wakes me up. There was the pain in the chest. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be alive today,” said Sotiropoulos.
It all started earlier that day at work; Sotiropoulos started feeling chest pain. He left early that day from work; he didn’t want to go to the hospital and took a nitroglycerine pill to ease the chest pain; he had them from a previous heart attack in 2018.
That night, Sotiropoulos bought an over-the-counter medication for heartburn and fell asleep on the couch. Around midnight Polo started barking, and he woke up feeling a huge burn in his chest, a pain like nothing he’s ever felt before. Sotiropoulos called 911, the ambulance came, and he asked to be rushed to a Manhattan hospital, but it was too far, and paramedics said he wouldn’t make it. So they took him to nearby Mount Sinai Queens, where he was diagnosed with a heart attack.
Dr. Atul Kukar was the cardiologist on duty that night. Sotiropoulos had his emergency, life-saving procedure at Mount Sinai’s new Cardiac Catheterization Lab to unblock his arteries. The cath lab is the first in Astoria, a game changer for hundreds in Queens, said Kukar.
“We need more facilities like this. We need to bring the care to the patients, and Mt. Sinai did it,” said Kukar.
Sotiropoulos hopes his experience can save someone’s life to get immediate help. And he said he owes his life to his four-legged best friend.