"They said if it wasn't for Stephanie, I wouldn't have made it. I am just so fortunate that she was around."
Wojciech Wilczynski had plans to complete a 10-mile run one Saturday morning in preparation for a marathon but only reached the first mile before he collapsed on the trail. Wojciech's running partner didn't have a cell phone on him and started yelling out for help.
That's when another runner, Stephanie Koklys, heard the panicked calls and ran over to call 911. Stephanie hadn't taken a lifesaving course in a long time, but the dispatcher talked her through what to do. She performed CPR for eight minutes until EMS arrived.
"I just remember thinking, 'This is happening, this is happening right now,'" Stephanie said. "I was just in automatic mode."
Wojciech woke up in the hospital a few days later. He was diagnosed with a genetic coronary heart disease, for which he never had any symptoms. As he continued to recover in the hospital for two weeks, Wojciech's family kept in touch ...
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