Doctor wearing mummer's costume saves a man at Eagles game: 'Most Philly thing to happen'

Dr. Vincent Basile was apprehensive that people would accept him as a doctor as he was dressed up in a mummer’s costume. However, he went ahead and helped a person who was bleeding and had turned blue during a game. Basile was wearing a pink dress and his face was painted in multiple colors when he saw a man asking for help during an Eagles game at Lincoln Financial Field on New Year’s Day, as reported by PEOPLE. He works as a doctor at Einstein Medical Center. His girlfriend told him that there was a man “laying down on the ground over there.” When Basile went to check on the person, he found him bleeding and blue. "He's like blue in the face," Basile said. "He's not moving. He's not really breathing."

"I said, 'Hey, I know I don't look like it, but I'm an emergency medicine doctor,'" Basile said. As he had full-face paint, he was unsure if people will believe him to be a doctor. So, he went prepared, Basile said, "I have to convince everyone that I'm a doctor when I get up there because it's a little hard to believe when I'm wearing that suit."

According to KYW newsradio, a nurse, Natalie Spencer reached the man first to help him. She said that she wanted to move him but couldn't do it alone. That's when Basile came into the picture. “All of a sudden, a guy in a pink dress comes up on the left-hand side of me,” said Spencer. “He said, ‘I'm a doctor.’” She then helped Basile to revive the man. Basile performed CPR on the man for several minutes and slowly the man regained consciousness. The man was surprised to see Basile when he woke up but the doctor also was surprised when the patient began to talk. "It's the most Philly thing to happen," Basile said.

"Believe it or not, the first thing to come out of the guy's mouth was he asked what the score of the Eagles game was," he added. The Eagles lost their match against New York Giants with a score of 10-20. However, Basile and Spencer were happy with the outcome that came off the field. Talking about doctors, another doctor every year during Christmas makes sure to bring smiles to thousands of NICU parents by dressing up in a Santa costume with a fake white beard. He has been doing this since 1984 when he was just a doctor in training. He was asked if he could fill in Santa’s shoes and he immediately agreed. "It was wonderful to give families the precious photo they couldn’t get at the mall because their babies were in the NICU," he said. "I don't celebrate Christmas, but it was obvious that a visit from Santa was filling an important need for a lot of families."

He has been doing this for about 40 years from his post-residency fellowship in Rochester, New York, to his current position as a neonatologist at the University of Virginia Children's Hospital in Charlottesville. However, this year, he decided to give another doctor the chance to do his duties. He said, "I’m going to be retiring in the not-so-distant future, so I think it’s reasonable for somebody else to enjoy playing Santa." Sinkin posed for pictures with 51 NICU infants—including a set of triplets and a set of twins—on December 15, his last day as Santa Claus.