An East Patchogue fisherman is alive thanks to an off-duty Suffolk County Police Officer who happened to hear a frantic mayday call in the Atlantic Ocean.
66-year-old Norman Orsinger was fishing 80 miles southeast of the Shinnecock Inlet when his legs were sliced badly by fishing hooks while trying to catch a yellowfin tuna.
With both of Orsinger’s legs bleeding badly, a marine distress call was sent seeking emergency assistance. Thankfully off-duty Suffolk County Police Second Precinct Officer William Parmenter was fishing nearby and heard the mayday.
Even more helpful is that Officer Parmenter is also a paramedic. He quickly found the boat with the fisherman in distress, boarded it with a trauma kit, applied tourniquets to both legs and contacted the United States Coast Guard and the Suffolk County Police Department
Aviation Section.
A Coast Guard helicopter met the boat in the Atlantic Ocean, approximately 20 miles south of Hampton Bays, and airlifted Orsinger to Long Island MacArthur Airport. Orsinger was then transported to Stony Brook University Hospital by Suffolk County Police helicopter where he was treated and released.