Hero Nurse Helps Save Man's Life at Long Island Movie Theater

Shyvonne Allen-Ibitoye woke up Easter morning intending to go to church, but instead she ended up saving a man’s life at a Long Island movie theater.

Allen-Ibitoye’s 17-year-old son asked if they could go to the 11:55 a.m. screening of "Shazam!" at the Regal Lynbrook 13 & RPX and go to church in the afternoon and she agreed.

While Allen-Ibitoye, who is a registered nurse at Telemetry Unit at South Nassau Communities Hospital, was watching the movie she heard a sleeping man a few rows behind her with an agonal breathing pattern. She got up and leaped into action.

She called to have the lights turned on, but when her call went unanswered she stormed into the lobby to alert ushers of the emergency. She then started administering live-saving CPR to the man, later identified as 48-year-old DeShawn Mason.

Paramedics responded and used a defibrillator on Mason and then rushed him to an area hospital where he was stabilized.

“She responded to check on a stranger in a darkened movie theater and helped save his life,” said South Nassau’s President & CEO Richard J. Murphy. “She is exactly the kind of nurse we are proud to work with here at South Nassau. Our nurses are on the front lines of providing care and they do so in the communities we serve and in the hospital at bedside. We are so very proud of Shyvonne for her life-saving actions.”

A doctor said if Allen-Ibitoye was not at the theater at the time, Mason may not be alive today.

“Without the CPR and defibrillator treatments being administered in the field, he may not have made it,” said Dr. Lawrence Kanner.

Now, Mason has expressed his gratitude.

“I blacked out,” he said. “I feel like there was divine intervention. If she, Mrs. Allen-Ibitoye, had not been there, I don’t know if I would be here.”