Current Conditions
54°F - CLEAR
(830) (113) (36) (23) (20) (11) (3)
A woman jogging alone through a quiet tree-lined neighborhood collapses, face-first, onto the ground.
She has no pulse.
She is not breathing.
She has no one to immediately help her.
Minutes pass.
The very first person to drive by and spot her — in fact one of the only people to drive by during that time period, shortly after 2:30 p.m. last Saturday — is a young man named Matthew Blantz.
VIDEO: Blantz describes his actions after finding a collapsed jogger
He is on his way home from his job as a medical tech at Ephrata Community Hospital.
He is a former EMT. He knows CPR. He is an Eagle Scout who is still active with Scouting and abides by the principle that you should always help others in their time of need.
Seriously: What are the odds — that at the very moment someone falls into distress, a hero emerges?
The odds are great.
But here is exactly what happened at the intersection of Ephrata Avenue and Second Street in Ephrata a week ago today:
Seeing the woman face-down in the grass, Blantz pulled a U-turn, jumped out of his car, found her unresponsive, called 911, rolled her on her back and began CPR — very likely saving the 51-year-old woman's life.
He continued chest compressions as medics arrived less than a minute later and took over respiration. The EMTs then used an automated external defibrillator to start the woman's pulse again.
Blantz, a 28-year-old Ephrata resident who grew up in Lebanon County, says he wasn't doing anything extraordinary.
"Being able to maintain my cool and stay calm in these types of situations, it really goes back to my training in the Boy Scouts," he said. "It makes me feel better knowing I was able to change the life of one person."
The jogger was taken to the hospital, where she remained unconscious — and unidentified — until Tuesday, when she awoke and was able to provide police with her mother's name.
Police have not released her identity.
"I want her family to know," Blantz said, "that individuals were there, that a complete stranger is willing to jump in and help at a moment's notice and not expect anything from anybody."
Another jogger had stopped to help while Blantz was on the phone with emergency dispatchers. Blantz handed him the phone and began CPR.
Dr. Michael Reihart, an emergency-room doctor at Lancaster General Hospital, said Blantz's actions almost certainly saved the woman's life in that situation.
"CPR absolutely is the most important thing that people can do," he said. "There's probably nothing that is more important. What this does is it prolongs the time for defibrillation.
"I don't know the details of this case, but from what you're describing to me, this was absolutely lifesaving," said Reihart, who also serves as the regional EMS director for southcentral Pennsylvania.
Dr. Bill Adams, the medical director of the emergency department at the hospital, said victims of heart attacks are three to four times more likely to survive if someone does CPR on them until defibrillation.
"The two things have to come together," said Adams. "You have to have somebody do CPR as soon as possible and get the 911 system alerted as soon as possible."
Informed of the specifics of this case, and Blantz's actions, Adams said: "He was very influential in helping to save her life. If he wouldn't have acted, a few more minutes could have been the difference between someone surviving and someone dying."
Blantz, though, brushed off the hero title.
"A lot of people use the term 'hero,"' he said. "To me it's more or less about being involved in the Boy Scouts of America. One of the things we teach is to do a good turn daily. To assist at times of need. That has been instilled into me, and I have instilled that belief in many youths.
"I feel I did my duty in helping another citizen," Blantz said.
