There is a man at UMMC tonight who may live because a family residing on South Street Road in Pavilion acted fast to pull him from the wreckage of his truck after he apparently suffered a heart attack, performed CPR, and called 9-1-1.
"I looked out my kitchen window," Eileen Ostrander said. "I ask my son and my granddaughter, 'is it raining that hard or is there a fire?' We went the kitchen door and then we heard the tires spinning. It was still in gear."
They didn't realize at first that somebody might need their assistance.
"It took a second to realize what was happening," said her son, Joe Condidorio. "You know, a lot of people on four-wheelers, tractors, so we took a few steps and we looked at each other and we realized what was going on and we just sprinted toward the truck."
Ostrander said she used to be a track star but this time her son beat her to the truck.
The truck was wedged into a grove of pine trees on the other side of a field across the road from their house.
When they got to the blue pickup truck, it was still in gear, the man's foot was full-throttle on the gas, smoke was spewing from the back tires and the driver was slumped over the wheel.
Condidorio undid his seat belt, turned off the engine and slapped him gently on his face to see if he would respond. His daughter, Isabella, called 9-1-1.
"He was unresponsive," Condidorio said.
Ostrander, who has worked for HomeCare & Hospice and Crossroads House, felt for a pulse. There was none.
Condidorio pulled the man from the vehicle and into the field. Ostrander started CPR.
Often times, dispatchers must talk a person through CPR procedures but Ostrander knew what to do.
"Actually, when I had my children it was the best thing I ever could have done was to take the CPR course," Ostrander said. "Everyone should."
By the time medics arrived, the man's pulse had returned and an EKG showed he had suffered a heart attack. At the time he was transported by Mercy EMS to UMMC, he had a regular heartbeat.
Condidorio said what his mom did was amazing and the family pulled together in a team effort.
"She probably couldn’t have gotten him where I got him to," he said. "She took over from there, so it was a great team, and with my daughter calling 9-1-1, too."
