Seventy-Year-Old Tourist Suffers Heart Attack in Bardolino; Two Volunteer Sisters Step In

A 70-year-old foreign tourist suffered an acute myocardial infarction on Friday afternoon while walking in Bardolino, and was successfully resuscitated until emergency transport arrived. Two sisters from Garda—Alessia Brangian, 32, and Giorgia, 29—volunteers with the Avs Croce Bianca in Torri del Benaco, began cardiopulmonary resuscitation immediately after being guided by the 118 emergency dispatch. Alessia retrieved a defibrillator from a nearby hotel and used it repeatedly until the ambulance arrived, after which the patient’s heart resumed beating during the rescue. He was then urgently transferred to the hemodynamics unit at Peschiera del Garda hospital.

Alessia said she saw the man lying on the ground while going to work and recognized he needed help. A German witness had already called 118 but could not communicate with the operator, prompting Alessia to take the phone and start CPR on the dispatcher’s instructions. When Giorgia arrived, the sisters alternated during the resuscitation efforts, continuing until the Avs ambulance took over; both have been volunteering for four years.
Italian Version