Franklin Square's Joe Gaskin has been a Long Island basketball referee for more than 30 years. He works CYO games, summer league games and Nassau County high school games. Joe says he's had the job for so long that "I've been called every name in the book."

But now Joe says he can be called something else.

"Not to take the words away from, who was it, Lou Gerhig? I'm the luckiest man on the face of the earth," said the 64-year-old Gaskin.

Joe feels that way after he suffered cardiac arrest and almost died on the job two weeks ago while working a Nassau County championship game between Floral Park and West Hempstead.

Joe said he felt fine before the game. But late in the first quarter he couldn't catch his breath.

"The West Hempstead coach said, 'Joe, you OK?' The basketball was near me. I bent down, picked it up and then I just remember falling forward." said Gaskin.

Wantagh athletic director Jennifer Keane and four people attending the game that day ran onto the court to help Joe. The four people were Dr. Steven Rokito, Nurse Monica Lally, Nurse Darlene Sica and Nurse Tiffany Vargas.

"We didn't know each other, but we all had one goal in mind: Save Joe," said Keane.

"It was scary. He was out. That's when he turned blue and purple," said Lally, who was there watching her son play for the Floral Park High School boys team.

Together they started CPR and Keane called for an AED. Section VIII, the group that monitors Nassau County high school athletics, mandates the lifesaving device be present at all athletic events.

Keane said one shock of the paddles brought Gaskin back to life.

"I said, 'Jen I'm so glad I'm seeing your face and not God's.' She said 'I got you Joe Gaskin. You're not going anywhere'," Gaskin recalled while sitting in his home 10 days after the incident.

Gaskin is the 126th person whose live has been saved since it became a law to put AED's at athletic events.

Joe spent nine days at the hospital. Doctors at Mt. Sinai Hospital in NYC said a parasite attacked his heart and that's what almost killed him. Joe was told that at the time of the incident his heart was functioning at about 20% capacity.

As Joe lay in the hospital, he and his family started learning the names of the people who saved his life. That's when Joe's daughter, Christie, heard Monica's name and realized it sounded familiar.

"I was like, Oh my God, that's my labor and delivery nurse with Joseph," Christie told her father.

It turned out Christie was right! Monica helped prepare Christie to deliver her first child, also named Joseph, while working at NYU-Langone Hospital on Mineola in 2021. Christie said Monica was an attentive nurse and exactly what she needed as a first-time expectant mom. Monica enjoyed working with Christie so much she changed her shift to be with Christie just hours after Joseph was born. After she left the hospital Christie sent Monica a thank you note and photos they took in the hospital room with her new baby. They had not spoken since.

"You can't make this up," Joe told News 12's Kevin Maher.

"Monica was put into our lives for a reason. I just can't stop thinking about it," said Christie.

Joe texted Monica as he lay in his hospital bed. Monica said she was floored when she found out about the strange connection and nearly cried when she read Joe's text.

"He said I cannot believe that you helped bring my grandson into the world and kept me in this world to watch him grow," said Joe holding back tears.

Joe now calls Monica and the others who saved his life his "angels." He said they executed a perfect game plan that day.

All five of Joe's life savers where honored March 18 at the Nassau County referees' annual end of the season banquet. Joe was there too. It was the first time he got to meet most of them since the day he almost died. He hugged them. He thanked them. But most of all he was just glad to be with them and his fellow officials.

Joe said, "They were so happy to see me as I was to see them. I owe them my life. I am as fortunate as any human can ever be. I am just a lucky, lucky, lucky man"