Tuesday afternoon, the sun was shining bright in the Mission and I decide to get a cold drink. Instead, I got caught in the traffic of stretchers from ambulance EMT and local residents being questioned.
At 2:00 p.m., Isaiah, a Mission Local reader and resident, was walking with a friend when he saw a man collapse onto the ground at Valencia and 22nd Street. The incident occurred right outside of Valencia Cyclery. “It was very scary,” says Isaiah who was just passing by with a group of friends. “I called 911 immediately and we tried to get him an aspirin as soon as we could.”
The man who suffered the attack appeared to be in his late 60’s or early 70’s and was complaining of chest pain while he lay on the ground breathing very heavily. ‘I’m having a heart attack, I’ve had one before,’ the man told Isaiah as he gasped for breath. This vital piece of information may have saved his life. Ambulance and firefighters showed up within minutes and were briefed on his history.
As Isaiah called and remained on the line with 911 correspondents, his friend scurried off to find aspirin. Less than 15 minutes later we saw him sprinting back to the scene but the victim was already being tended to in an ambulance.
This turned out to be one of those rare examples of a normal person acting in an extraordinary way…Thanks Isaiah!
Kudos to Isaiah but calling 911 and staying with someone having a heart attack should be normal human behavior and not be considered extraordinary. Given a young cyclist who was hit by a truck was robbed while he lay unconscious in West Oakland, I guess we’ve lost track of what the decent thing to do is.