'I thought I was going to pass out': Nurse wins $100,000 to pay off student loans

A Bronx nurse was awarded $100,000 from the "Live with Kelly and Ryan" show to help pay off his student loans.

News 12 Staff

Oct 19, 2020, 1:49 PM

Updated 1,452 days ago

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A Bronx nurse was awarded $100,000 from the "Live with Kelly and Ryan" show and SoFi to help pay off his student loans.
Jose Perpignan Jr., a nurse at New York Presbyterian Hospital, says he almost cried when it was announced that he had won the prize money.
"I thought I was going to pass out at first," Perpignan says. "I always worry about my student loan debt. I had $130,000 so I always worried about it, every single day."
Perpignan, a husband and father of two, was nominated for the award by his friend Erica.
When the Brooklyn-born nurse wasn't working 12-hour shifts at the hospital, he went grocery shopping for seniors, picked up their medicine and handed out personal protective equipment to people in need.
Perpignan tells News 12 he plans on spending more time with wife Tiara and his two children, Madison and Jason.
He says he is thankful that his hours of hard work and endless time serving his neighborhood has paid off.
"It sounds easy but it wasn't, but I made it work," Perpignan says. "I had a lot of support. That's what I wanted to do since I was young so I had to make it happen."