Youth saves stranger’s life days before Christmas
On a snowy December afternoon, Lane and his wife Jessica were on their way to a coffee shop for a business meeting. “I had just pushed my car out of a snow bank,” recalls Lane.
The next thing he remembers is seeing oncoming traffic on the busy street and moments later he collapsed, unconscious on the side of the road.
When Jessica realized that her husband had gone into sudden cardiac arrest, she panicked and screamed out: “Does anyone know CPR?”
That is when Dylan, a 19-year-old student who was waiting at the bus stop, rushed over to Lane’s side.
“I saw a man on the ground, his face was blue,” remembers Dylan.
While Jessica dialled 911, Dylan pulled Lane off the road with the help of other bystanders. Immediately, he started CPR, a skill he had learned in school.
“At the hospital they told me he was in a stable condition,” says Dylan. “His wife hugged me and thanked me for saving her husband’s life.”
“When I woke up at the hospital, my wife told me a young man named Dylan saved my life with CPR,” says Lane.
Dylan’s foster mother, Lois, couldn’t be prouder of her son. “He came home that day drenched in sweat. He said to me ‘Mom I think I saved a man. I think I saved him,’ ” she shares.
“I never thought I’d have to use CPR in my life,” shares Dylan. “Yet that day a man died and I brought him back to life,” he adds.
Lane’s rescue occurred the day of his daughter’s sixth birthday. He was able to resume his normal activities within a matter of days and to celebrate Christmas with his family.
“Their eight-year-old daughter wrote me a letter which is framed in my room,” says Dylan. “In the letter she says: ‘Dear Dylan, I know you think you aren’t a hero, but you are one to me. I know you work in a restaurant as a cook. My dad taught me how to cook. “
Lane’s wife agrees with her daughter. “My life would have been completely different now if it wasn’t for Dylan,” she says. “He saved a father and a husband.”
The ACT High School CPR and Defibrillator Training Program was set up in Bluevale Collegiate Institute in partnership with lead community partner, Kitchener-Waterloo Emergency Medical Services , provincial partners, the Government of Ontario and Hydro One, and health partners, AstraZeneca Canada, Sanofi Canada, and Amgen Canada.
The Advanced Coronary Treatment (ACT) Foundation is the award-winning, national charitable organization dedicated to establishing free CPR and AED training programs in high schools across Canada. ACT raises funds to donate mannequins and teacher training to schools, and guides schools in program set-up and long-term sustainability. Over 3.6 million youth have been trained in CPR by their teachers through this lifesaving program to date.