By Nawal Qarooni
The Star-Ledger
Copyright 2007 Newark Morning Ledger Co.
All Rights Reserved
WOODBRIDGE, N.J. — Joseph Murawski responded to thousands of emergency calls in more than 20 years as a paramedic, and it seemed the one yesterday would be much like the others, maybe less grim than some.
The call came in at 4:35 a.m. for a single-car accident in Woodbridge, according to State Police spokeswoman Sgt. Jeanne Hengemuhle. Four people were hurt, but no one suffered life-threatening injuries.
Soon after the rig pulled away from the accident scene, it was Murawski who was in trouble. His chest hurt, and he asked the driver to pull over.
Then the 51-year-old South Amboy resident went into cardiac arrest, for the second time in eight months.
“I saw the defibrillator. They tried to resuscitate him . . . they did, they really did,” said his wife, Deborah Murawski. “I guess they were able to save him once but not a second time.”
Murawski was pronounced dead at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick at 6:30 a.m., Hengemuhle said.
It was near the end of September when Deborah Murawski thought she was the luckiest woman. Somehow, her best friend had been saved.
“He was fine after the first one. He completely recovered, with no heart damage,” said Murawski’s wife, a nurse for more than 20 years. “I’m in shock, but this is what we do. We’ve always taken care of people.”
That is what Joseph Murawski did - he took care of his black Labradors, his neighbors, or anyone else in need of help.
When the Murawskis moved to South Amboy from the Keasbey section of Woodbridge with their daughter 16 years ago, Joseph Murawski immediately assumed the role of a father to their neighbor’s daughter, Danielle.
“He basically raised my daughter,” said Denise Morales, who lives across the street. “He took her to ballgames, to parks, on vacation with them.
“We’d say he had twins, not just one daughter. She’s going to be a wreck when she finds out,” Morales said.
The former assistant director of Raritan Bay Medical Center’s mobile intensive care unit, Murawski volunteered at the Perth Amboy Fire Department, where he was a lifelong member. He also was the four-time past president of the Keasbey Fire Department and taught hospital classes on advanced cardiac life support, pediatric life support and cardiopulmonary resuscitation, his wife said.
Murawski was known as a leader, a lover of sports and cruises, and a person who did good things.
He and his wife recently returned from a cruise to Bermuda to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. After that, they watched their daughter, Jamie, graduate from Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania - a milestone that gave him immense pride.
“Anyone who knew him would say he always did what was right, whether he wanted to or not,” Deborah Murawski said. “When we first started dating and he’d run off to fire calls, I asked him why and he’d say, `Wouldn’t you want someone to respond if it were your house?’”
Murawski was laid off from a factory position at Indiana General in Woodbridge in 1982. He had volunteered as an emergency medical technician and enjoyed the work, his wife said, so he decided to make a career of it by earning his paramedic certification from Union County Community College.
“He took the negative of losing a job and turned it into a positive,” said his brother-in-law, David Volk. “He was a true extension of an emergency physician, working as their eyes and ears and hands in the field.”
Larry Cattano, who knew Murawski for more than 30 years, said Murawski dove head first into emergency responses, despite the stress and trauma related to many calls.
“It was something in his bones,” Cattano said. “Anything he could do to help, especially on those action calls, he did.”
He liked sports - including the Bengals, Jets and Yankees - so much he would attend high school events like Metuchen’s football games without knowing anyone playing, Volk said.
“Honestly, he died doing what he was good at and what he loved,” his brother-in-law said. “That’s the one comfort his wife, daughter, and everyone else who knew him have.”
A viewing for Murawski will be held at Flynn & Son Funeral Home in Fords tomorrow from 7 to 9 p.m. and Wednesday from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. Services will be held in Our Lady of Peace Church in Fords on Thursday, at a time to be announced.