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"I'd done CPR once before, but never this," De Young told Daily Voice a short time later. "We just had [defibrillator] class last year, so I'm grateful.
"This made a nice refresher course."
De Young, a Maywood DPW foreman, was off work Monday when he visited the supermarket "for a few things."
As he headed toward the express aisle, he saw a lane shut down and people standing in a circle.
The victim was on the floor -- no breath, no pulse, "not a darn thing," De Young said -- with a ShopRite employee on his knees next to him.
"I used to be an EMT," the worker told De Young.
"Together we lifted the guy's shirt and started CPR -- still nothing," he said.
Another worker came running with a debrillator.
"We shocked him and he came back," said De Young, 45. "Paramus police and EMS showed up and took over from there.
"He never spoke at all -- he gurgled at first," the veteran firefighter told Daily Voice. "But his condition improved.
"Hopefully he'll come along."
De Young was only 16 years old when he became a firefighter.
"It's pretty much common sense when something like this happens -- as long as you stay cool and collected," he said.
The key, De Young said, is keeping the crowd back.
"All I can say is I was in the right place at the right time," he said.
"I still had to pay for my $41 in groceries, though," De Young added with a laugh. "I'm just glad it worked out well in the end."
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