Irish Singer Performs For Forest Hills LIJ Staff After Saving His Life

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — With Saint Patrick's Day around the corner, doctors and nurses at LIJ Forest Hills Hospital got a sprinkle of the luck of the Irish on Wednesday.

An Irish man living in Glendale performed a musical set on Wednesday for staff at the LIJ Forest Hills Hospital and the North Shore University Hospital after doctors and nurses in both facilities saved his life in December.

The performance by Irish folk rock musician Allen Gogarty, 48, took place Wednesday morning at North Shore University Hospital auditorium in Long Island.

Gogarty, from County Meeth in Ireland, woke up in his Glendale home with severe back pain, nausea, and sweating in December, and was later taken to LIJ Forest Hills. At the hospital, he suffered a massive heart attack, leaving him without a pulse for 23 minutes.

After doctors and nurses tried to resuscitate him, Gogarty was taken to the hospital in Long Island and kept his heart beating through a temporary heart pump.

Gogarty recovered after doctors at North Shore University Hospital stented two of his coronary arteries that were 100% and 90% blocked.

The Ireland native is a married father of two teenage sons who makes a living as a musician playing up to five nights a week in the tri-state area. His friends in New York’s Irish music scene joined together to organize a GoFundMe to help him recover.

The fundraiser has garnered more than $30,000.