Megan Milota had just entered Castillo Fresh Seafood Market in Raritan Borough around 5:30 p.m. on Valentine’s Day when she saw an unconscious man lying on the floor.

A woman working at the restaurant was on the phone with 911, Milota recalled, and when the dispatcher asked her if she knew CPR, the woman replied she did not.

“That’s when I said, ‘I’m actually a CPR instructor,’” Milota told NJ Advance Media. “I took his pulse and started doing compressions.”

Milota had performed about 300 compressions when police officers from the borough arrived on scene. Sgt. Everett Holt, the department’s public information officer who was also on scene during the incident, said Milota’s immediate actions gave the officers the brief time needed to set up the automated external defibrillator, or AED, pads.

Holt, along with Officers Christopher Hirsch and Andrew Ragati, took turns performing CPR on the man, and the officers provided two shocks through the defibrillator.

The man, a 52-year-old Hillsborough resident who had suffered a heart attack, had stabilized and was conscious when he was taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in Somerville, police said.

Holt said he spoke with a family member of the man, who said he is recovering and doing well. “Her early intervention during the cardiac incident was crucial in saving the man’s life,” he said of Milota’s action.

Milota, a Raritan resident, said she started teaching CPR in 2009 after her daughter, who was born prematurely, came home with a heart monitor.

She recalled an incident where the monitor went off, leaving her panicked and performing CPR incorrectly. The ambulance’s arrival saved her daughter, Milota said, but the incident led her to both learn and teach the proper technique, after designing a class with the American Heart Association.

Although she teaches the class about three times a month, Milota said the Valentine’s Day incident was the first time she’s really used it.

And it was coincidental Milota was on the scene at all — she went into the seafood market after arriving with a friend who had forgotten his mask and stayed in the car. She’s also a Maryland resident who lives in the state part-time, in a New Jersey residence, for her son who plays ice hockey.

“It was truly amazing,” Milota said. “And the fact that he came back was great.”

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Woman’s quick thinking and CPR training helps save man’s life on Valentine’s Day - nj.com