A Mummer-doctor and a nurse performed CPR to help save a man’s life during New Year’s Day Eagles game

Vincent Basile, a Mummer who struts the Cara Liom Wench Brigade, went viral after he performed CPR in his pink and blue garb on a man who’d seemingly collapsed during the Eagles’ New Year’s Day game against the New Orleans Saints. Aside from being a Mummer, the 30-year-old is also an emergency medicine resident at Einstein Medical Center in North Philly.

Around the second quarter, Basile, who was in his ruffled Mummers gear, heard a commotion several rows behind him as other spectators called for security. His girlfriend said people were murmuring about a man falling down some steps, and Basile “just went into work mode.”

Basile got to the scene in his sunglasses, leopard-print bandana, and with the colors of the rainbow still painted on his face from the morning’s parade to find a man tangled in a guardrail with blood on his mouth from the fall and turning blue in the face.

“The first thing I had to do was convince everyone I actually was a doctor,” he said with a chuckle. “It’s not a typical outfit I had on compared to the scrubs I’m normally wearing.”

Natalie Spencer, 41, who was with her 6-year-old son at the game, was already there trying to get people to help her move the man onto his back because his body weight was entirely on his head at the bottom of the stairs. Spencer, a nurse, said she’d never had to use her expertise outside of a medical facility until Sunday. There had been a lot of Saints fans in the section and she’d initially thought a brawl had broken out.

Once Basile convinced the crowd he was a medical professional, he and Spencer noticed the man, whose name they didn’t get, had shallow breathing. When they inspected the man, he had no pulse and they took turns performing CPR for about three to five minutes.

Basile said he’d similarly never been in a situation where he had to jump into action without having a complement of medical staff around him. But the man woke up after the CPR.

“The first thing that came out of that guy’s mouth as he was kind of waking up a little bit — and I don’t think he remembers — but he asked what score the game was,” said Basile.

By the time the man woke up, albeit in a daze, paramedics were able to take over and they presumably took the fan to the hospital. The Eagles would not comment on the medical incident, per policy.

Basile said the rest of the game was uneventful. He returned to his seat and resumed watching the game, which didn’t have as happy of an ending. The New Orleans Saints beat the Eagles, 20-10.

Spencer is still hoping to connect with the man she helped and see how he’s doing. She said it’s unfortunate the incident happened at all but glad she was there to help.

“To have a nurse and a doctor and an ER doctor both within rows of him, if he was going to collapse, it happened at the right place,” she said.