By Kelly Rocheleau
The Citizen
AUBURN, N.Y. — Shelly Delfavero has helped hundreds of people when their lives were at stake, so she went out of her way to thank two people who saved hers earlier this year.
Delfavero, a Cayuga County 911 dispatcher, gave a 911 coin on July 18 to Auburn City Ambulance staff Dan Tomasino and Dan Cooper in gratitude for their help when she had a heart attack on March 7.
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At 3:15 that morning, Delfavero told The Citizen, she woke up at her home with excruciating pain in her chest. Due to her training, she knew what was happening.
“My arm went numb, and I knew it was my heart,” she said.
Delfavero went to the bedroom of her daughter Bailey Murphy, saying she thought she was having a heart attack and needed to go to a hospital. Murphy called 911 and connected with dispatcher Greg Campbell. As he asked questions about his longtime coworker’s condition, she asked Murphy to tell him she was calling in sick that day, she said with a laugh.
Noting that one of her arteries was completely blocked, Delfavero said her heart attack was so severe that if she lived any farther away from the ambulance station than Van Anden Street, she might not be around to tell the tale. But Tomasino, a paramedic, and Cooper, an EMS technician, arrived within five minutes of Murphy’s call.
As they navigated an ice storm to get to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Syracuse, Delfavero’s heart stopped several times, requiring the use of a defibrillator. She remembers little from the ride, she said.
“I remember the potholes,” she said.
Delfavero had nine stents placed, and said her heart health has improved ever since.
Four months later she gave Tomasino and Cooper the coin, which she received from the county 911 center after helping a father administer CPR to his baby in January 2024 .
A “good save” like that, Delfavero said, can encourage people in emergency services and remind them “why you do your job and why you do it the best that you can.”
Their quick work, she continued, meant the difference between life and death.
“I can’t thank them enough,” she said.
“We’re extremely fortunate to have Auburn ambulance and the people that work at Auburn ambulance. And I know if it weren’t for my paramedic Dan, my chances of making it were to slim-to-none.”
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