Drums boomed, bagpipes skirled, motorcycles roared and hundreds of cops cheered as the Suffolk police officer stabbed by a drunk driving suspect earlier this month was released from Stony Brook University Hospital Monday.
Officer Christopher Racioppo, who lost most of his blood after the near-fatal stabbing in Patchogue on April 10, said he was happy to go home after 16 days in the hospital.
“A lot of nurses and doctors to thank,” Racioppo, 31, said before he was helped into the white Chevrolet SUV that would take him home.
A Suffolk police helicopter circled overhead as hundreds of police officers, family members and other supporters cheered.
Dr. James Vosswinkel, the head of trauma at the hospital and the Suffolk police consulting surgeon and medical consultant, said Racioppo would have died if not for the actions of quick-thinking officers and bystanders who responded to the scene.
“Seeing him leave this hospital and getting on the road to recovery is really nothing short of a miracle,” Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said before Racioppo was discharged.
Racioppo, sitting in a wheelchair, was pushed out of the hospital by Suffolk police Sgt. Frank Samartimo, one of the officers who responded to the scene and is credited with saving the cop’s life.
Among those who cheered Racioppo as he left the hospital was his fiancé, Brittany Cunningham, a nurse at Stony Brook University Hospital. She is pregnant, officials said.
Racioppo, who had been hospitalized since the stabbing on April 10, was upgraded from critical to fair condition last week.
Vosswinkel had said Racioppo lost most of his blood after he was stabbed. Vosswinkel credited Suffolk cops and Good Samaritans who provided treatment at the scene and rushed him to the hospital with saving his life.
Vosswinkel said earlier this month that Racioppo could make a full recovery despite the severity of the injury.
“He will need rehabilitation,” Vosswinkel said. “There are a lot more steps to a full recovery.”
Racioppo was in a marked patrol car on April 10 when he saw a 1999 Mercedes-Benz driving south erratically with no headlights on South Ocean Avenue in Patchogue, police said.
When Racioppo attempted to stop the vehicle, the driver, Jonathan Nunez of Centereach, allegedly sped off in the Mercedes and crashed into a 2004 Nissan, police said.
Prosecutors said Nunez climbed out of his car, which had flipped to its side, and ran into the yard of a home, where he stabbed the officer.
Vosswinkel said Nunez plunged the knife seven centimeters into Racioppo’s left thigh, cutting the femoral artery and a vein.
Nunez was charged with aggravated assault upon a police officer with a deadly weapon, driving while intoxicated and resisting arrest. He pleaded not guilty at his virtual arraignment on April 13 and was ordered held without bail.
Officials have also praised Patchogue resident Guillermo Sandoval, a former Marine who helped stanch Racioppo’s bleeding, and Frank “J.R.” Recupero, a retired NYPD detective who helped restrain the suspect until he could be arrested.
