Last year, a 23-year-old drug-user was found near death in her home, in the Lindenwood-Ozone Park area of Queens, after having over-dosed on drugs. There was no hospital EMT service available to save her at the time. The Volunteer Ambulance Corps came to the young woman’s rescue. Quartermaster Lt. John Locascio arrived on the scene and quickly revived her.
Lt. Locascio has been saving lives since 1997, when he joined the Lindenwood branch of the Queens VAC. Locascio volunteers for the VAC every Wednesday evening, from 7:00PM until the service closes at around midnight; he is also a phone-call away every other weekday, if there is an emergency. Working off-hours from his career as a captain for the New York City Department of Parks, where he specializes in hazardous materials (hazmat), Lt. Locascio serves the Lindenwood, Ozone Park, and South Ozone Park neighborhoods of Queens with his partner, Jillian Dombo, and other volunteers, including Jose Escobar.
For Lt. Locasio, the satisfaction of saving a young woman’s life is the chief reward. One afternoon, while out having lunch with his wife Maria in Howard Beach in Queens, Lt. Locascio ran into the woman whose life he saved. She not only thanked him for saving her life, but told him that she was no longer using drugs. For Locascio, that was his bonus.
As a man who feels “like Godzilla” when dispatched to save lives, Lt. Locascio believed that “he guessed that he did something right” and that his training worked to save the young woman’s life. The woman agreed, saying, “it works better than you think because I’m standing here breathing and talking to you.”