In a harrowing, life-or-death moment, a Mississippi man named Chris Walton made the split-second decision to jump into action, perform CPR, and save a stranger’s life.
The dramatic scene unfolded in September, when that stranger, Eric Ward, suffered a heart attack while driving down the road — a medical crisis that caused him to crash his car.
Walton, a random Good Samaritan who happened to see the collision, didn’t merely call 911 and wait for paramedics to save Ward. Instead, he took matters into his own hands, pulled Ward from the vehicle, and performed life-saving CPR.
It was those quick-thinking acts that inevitably led to Ward’s survival, WLOX-TV reported.
Ward spent 40 days in the hospital and was released over the weekend to cheers from friends and loved ones who came to greet him at his home. Walton was among those who showed up, with the two men having an emotional reunion.
“Although he told me not to get up, I had to get up and give him a hug,” Ward told WLOX-TV. “Because, aside from God, I feel like he was the one who saved my life.”
As for Walton, despite being a former U.S. Air Force instructor who was trained in performing CPR, this was the first time he ever needed to use those skills in real-time.
“Immediately, it was, ‘Just get him help,'” Walton said of his thoughts in the seconds following the crash. “Then, I saw ‘Army Veteran’ on his seat covers and that just kind of made it more important for me as a fellow veteran to help him and help him survive.”
Positive comments flowed into the comments section of a WLOX-TV Facebook post that shared both the image of the men embracing as well as a link to the story.
One woman wrote, “God put him that place at the right time” and another added, “Thank God for this HERO. God’s continued blessings to you both.”
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