Man, 62, Meets Good Samaritan Who Helped Save Him After Heart Attack

CORONA (CBSLA.com) — For the first time since a near-death encounter, Al Siddons came face to face with the good Samaritan who administered CPR.

As CBS2's Tom Wait reports, the 62-year-old Siddons was on his routine morning run when he collapsed a year ago this month.

"I was going for a 4-mile run that I do all the time, and I got about a mile when I stop and stretch, right there at Lincoln and Foothill, and I just don't remember a thing until about four days later," he said.

That's when Pilar Mitchell made a split second to jump in and help.

"There was a girl in the corner. I was on my way to a doctor's appointment and there was a girl in the corner screaming if anyone knew CPR," Mitchell said.

Coincidentally, Mitchell had recently gone through CPR training. She pulled over and jumped into action and kept Siddons alive until paramedics could get to the scene.

"Voices were going through my head like, 'I took a class but I've never done this before,' " she said.

"It's just an amazing thing because somebody that didn't actually know a lot about CPR, they actually gave it a shot and they actually did something instead of nothing," John DeYoe of the Corona Fire Department said.

It turned out Siddons had suffered a heart attack, and firefighters say it's likely Mitchell helped save his life.

"It just really restores your faith in humanity and that people do step up," said Siddons, who remains very active.