The Pinellas ­Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA), St. Petersburg, FL, recently recognized Care Ride paratransit driver Robert Parissi for performing CPR on one of his passengers.

Last month, Parissi arrived to pick up 80-year-old Klaus Gansel at his home. He saw the man suddenly slump ­forward in his wheelchair. “I wasn’t sure if he was asleep or on medication, so I shook his shoulder to see—and he didn’t respond,” said Parissi. “I checked for breathing and a pulse and as soon as I realized that he didn’t have one, I took him out of the chair, laid him on the ground, and started doing compressions.”

After a few minutes, Parissi realized that his cell phone was still in the vehicle. “I ran to the van as fast as I could, grabbed the phone, and ran back to continue the compressions,” he said. After a few more minutes, he managed to call 911 while continuing CPR. Emergency responders soon arrived and transferred Gansel to an ambulance.

During the previous year, Gansel had undergone chemotherapy and radiation therapy for lung cancer, which placed stress on his heart. He lived an ­additional five days.

“We knew it was coming and it wasn’t a surprise,” said Gansel’s widow Diana. “But we can’t thank Robert enough for what he did—he gave us another week with Klaus.” She said employees of the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit called Parissi’s efforts “perfect.”

All Care Ride drivers receive intensive and ongoing training on how to administer CPR, but Parissi said this was the first time he had ever needed to use it.

“This whole thing has been incredible. You never know how you’re going to react when something like this comes up; you just hope you get it right,” Parissi said, crediting his CPR instructors and their attention to detail during his training sessions.

PSTA Care Ride operator Robert Parissi and Diana Gansel, whose husband Parissi revived.