17 year old saves the life of nurse who saved his 7 years earlier
Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2006 10:15 am
this is just too weird. Positive Karma, fate or the circle of life, what ever you want to call it this is a really neat story and very true.Seven years ago, Lancaster's Kevin Stephan was a bat boy for his little brother's little-league baseball team. A player who was warming up accidentally hit him in the chest with a bat. Kevin's heart stopped beating. "All I remember is that I dropped the bat off, and all of a sudden just got hit in the chest with something, and I turned around and passed out," Kevin said.Fortunately, a nurse whose son played on that team was able to revive Kevin and save his life."I started C.P.R on him and he came back," Penny Brown said.Kevin's mother said he was extremely fortunate. Penny was supposed to be at work that night, but was given the day off at the last minute.Here's the amazing second part of the story.Last week that same nurse was eating at the Hillview Restaurant in Depew, when she began to choke on her food. Witnesses say patrons were screaming for someone to help her. "The food wasn't going anywhere and I totally couldn't breath," Penny said. "It was very frightening."Restaurant employees yelled for Kevin to come out and help."They knew I was a volunteer firefighter and they called me over and I did the Heimlich, and I guess you could say I saved Mrs. Brown," Kevin said.After everyone had calmed down at the restaurant, they realized the amazing twist of fate they had just witnessed. Seven years ago, Penny had saved Kevin's life. Now at age 17, he had returned the favor."It's almost unbelievable," Kevin said."The fact that it has been two individuals, that you know, helped each other out in a pretty dire situation, it's pretty extraordinary," Penny said.On Saturday, the two met again at the Bowmansville Fire Hall where Kevin is a junior firefighter. He presented her with a bouquet of flowers, and his parents were also on hand to greet Penny.Officials with the American Red Cross in Buffalo said this story highlights the importance of receiving training in first aid and C.P.R.Judith Rucki from the Buffalo office said, "We always ask people, if someone in the cubicle next to you went into cardiac arrest, do you know what to do?"The man who trained Kevin at the fire hall, Dan Curtis, said he was trained by the American Red Cross."He called to thank me for teaching him what I taught him in order to be able to do what he did at the restaurant," Curtis said. "It was just incredible. And as an instructor you can't get a better compliment than that, when somebody in the civilian world takes what they learn in a four-hour C.P.R. class and actually uses it to save someone's life."The Red Cross is planning an award presentation for Kevin, and so are the Boy Scouts. Kevin is an Eagle Scout.