God bless you, Dr. Kevorkian (9 page)

us morning,

near-death experience, I was lucky enough to meet, at the far end of the blue tunnel, a man named Salvatore Biagini. Last July 8th, Mr. Biagini, a retired construction worker, age seventy, suffered a fatal heart attack while rescuing his beloved schnauzer, Teddy, from an assault by an unrestrained bull

named

in Queens.

The pit bull, with no previous record of violence against man or beast, jumped a four-foot fence in order to have at Teddy. Mr. Biagini, an unarmed man with a

of heart trouble,

him, allowing

J

the schnauzer to run away. So the pit bull bit Mr.
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in several places and then Mr.

heart

quit

never to beat again.

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O

I asked this heroic pet lover how it felt to have died for a

named Teddy. Salvador Biagini was

philosophical. He said it sure as heck beat dying for absolutely nothing in the Viet Nam War.
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