'Mayday!': Man Bleeding After Accident In Atlantic Rescued By Officer

EAST END, NY — An off-duty Suffolk County Police Second Precinct officer helped rescue a man who was suffering from rapid blood loss following a fishing accident in the Atlantic Ocean, police said.

Officer William Parmenter was fishing in the Atlantic Ocean, about 80 miles southeast of the Shinnecock Inlet, when a mayday call regarding an injured person came over the marine radio at around 2 p.m. on Wednesday, police said.

Parmenter, who is a paramedic, contacted the man’s boat via radio and offered assistance; he then located and boarded the man's vessel with a trauma kit, police said.

Norman Orsinger, 66, of East Patchogue, was bleeding from both legs after he was
punctured by a fishhook while attempting to catch a yellowfin tuna, police said. Parmenter applied tourniquets to both legs and contacted the United States Coast Guard and the Suffolk County Police Department's aviation section, police said.

A Coast Guard helicopter met the boat in the Atlantic Ocean, about 20 miles south of Hampton
Bays, and airlifted Orsinger to Long Island MacArthur Airport, police said. Orsinger was then transported via Suffolk County Police helicopter to Stony Brook University Hospital, where he was treated and released, police said.