Danny on the Spot

SICBP’s Rowing Champ A Humble Hero in Medical Emergency

Danny Rogers is a good man to have around in an emergency.

Last summer, Danny Rogers found the headlines.

This year, they found him.

It’s been quite a year – and a study of contrasts – for the Sea Isle City Beach Patrol rower, guard and EMT.

Rogers electrified the Sea Isle City lifeguard community last summer when he provided its first individual South Jerseys event winner since 1966.

Teammates and alumni robustly cheered the singles rowing champ, who then launched his collegiate career at the University of Miami.

What happened last January, as he was about to embark upon his second semester, was a different high moment. It unfolded away from the media glare.

Rogers was first across the finish line in a significant humanitarian endeavor. He was in the TSA line at Philadelphia International Airport, about to clear security and board a flight back to school, when it happened.

A passenger collapsed and fell just a few feet in front of him, apparently suffering a seizure. Rogers jumped to the scene and helped to stabilize and treat her before an ambulance arrived.

At the very least, Rogers’ 25-minute effort comforted the woman and bought her valuable time toward reaching the hospital. It might also have helped save her life.

While there’s no medical data to confirm the extent of his assistance, Rogers certainly made an impact that day before heading back to school.

The moment stayed there, locked away as a gratifying memory for Rogers, until he returned here several months later.

Details of his assistance found their way to Sea Isle City in the spring and summer.

“I had gotten a call from a Sea Isle City resident in April,” Beach Patrol Chief Renny Steele recalls. “She had seen the whole thing and recognized the name of the Sea Isle City Beach Patrol on a sweatshirt Danny had on, but she didn’t know who he was.

“She said, ‘You’ve got to recognize this guy for what he did.’”

She called again in June and by that time, the guards had assembled for the summer.

Steele took it up with them.

He asked who had been at the Philadelphia airport in January, helping a person who’d suffered a seizure.

No hands went up. Everyone looked away.

Steele asked again.

There was a process of elimination. Who had been in Philly in January, traveling to Miami, just as winter college classes were starting?

Who had something identifying him with the Sea Isle City Beach Patrol? Who had EMT skills?

Pat Scannapieco pushes as he and Danny Rogers start the doubles race in the Dutch Hoffman Memorial Championships in August

Hmm.

Rogers slowly raised his hand.

And was cheered by his patrol again.

“It was really something that he looked out for a fellow human being that way,” Steele says. “That’s who he is. Danny is a blessing to us. I am proud of him.”

Danny Rogers recalls Jan. 30 with the feeling that some things are just meant to happen.

His father Denis was driving him to the airport, after he had enjoyed the holiday break with his family.

“We start talking and he misses the turn heading for customer drop-off,” Danny says with a laugh. “He has to circle the airport. He gets up there, we’re still talking, and he misses it a second time.

“When we went over this later, he pointed out to me that if he had made the turn earlier, I would have been in front of the lady, not behind her, in the security line.”

And Rogers would have been past her, out of range, sitting at his departure gate rather than in view of a situation he could influence.

Rogers and his coworkers guarding the 44th Street beach.

Rogers credits his father, an executive for Main Line Spine in King of Prussia, for inspiring his work as an EMT. It so happened that when Danny saw the woman fall backward amid the TSA’s ID signs and hit her head on the concrete, he had some tools.

One was a blanket he had gotten for Christmas. He stepped forward, identified himself as an EMT, and provided the blanket to cushion her head.

He also had a blood pressure cuff and stethoscope in his bag. Rogers carries it for extreme situations, like this.

An EMT, also known as an EMT-Basic, cares for patients at the scene of an incident and possibly while taking patients by ambulance to a hospital. An EMT has the skills to assess a patient’s condition and to manage respiratory, cardiac, and trauma emergencies.

Rogers worked alongside a nurse, performing various tasks until an ambulance arrived.

“You can give oxygen, we can help you take insulin, or an inhaler,” he says. “You can be taking vitals. You are making sure they don’t get worse before they are on their way to the hospital.”

Although he was prepared to miss his flight back to Miami, that did not happen.

The moment reinforces a belief Steele has long held about the young adult who had come up through the patrol’s junior lifeguard program several years earlier.

At every step of the journey, Rogers has grown.

Rogers’ first mentor was Pat Scannapieco, who guided him through the junior guard program. Scannapieco has since become Rogers’ doubles partner.

Rogers is no stranger to performing both the singles and doubles row at the South Jerseys.

And last year, he created a magic moment for the Sea Isle patrol.

For Sea Isle City patrol officials, Rogers’ evolution from a junior guard to South Jerseys champion resembles watching someone rise from the minor leagues into a World Series MVP.

And this went even further.

“I think the world of Danny, I really do,” Steele says. “Dan’s attitude has always been that whatever is good for the patrol is good for him. Danny says, ‘Whatever you need me to do, I will do.’ He always puts his own concerns second.

“This type of employee is hard to find.”

Steele is high on Rogers’ work ethic, not only as an EMT but as a rower putting in the time six or seven days a week to compete on the lifeguard circuit.

“Dan is an excellent lifeguard,” Steele says. “I have never heard a negative statement about him, ever. He is well-liked, an easy fit. Danny is down to earth, a nice, caring guy. He is also well-disciplined at such a young age. Danny puts in the time not only to be a great lifeguard, but an excellent rower …

“What a tremendous young man.”

People in Philadelphia got a glimpse of that in January.

People in Sea Isle City have seen it before.