The night I saved a life

by Johnny Masters—Ohio

A while back I was out on turf in Dayton, OH with my fellow canvasser Jarrett Siler when we had a remarkable encounter.

It was getting dark, just after 7pm, when I came to a door that directed me to come to the back door. I went around and knocked on the door, and saw an older man collapsed on the floor, with his arm outstretched towards the telephone. Although he was inches away from 9-11 help, he couldn’t reach the phone. The situation didn’t look right at all, so I yelled to get the fallen man’s attention. No response. I tried the door knob to see if it was open. It was, and I cracked the door and shouted, “Sir, are you okay?” He didn’t respond, but he started to quiver. So I went in to see what I could do. I asked a bunch of questions, but he wasn’t able to speak very well. He managed to mutter that he had been lying there for the last three hours. I ran out of the house, and called out to Jarrett, “the old man collapsed, I need your help!” Jarrett abandoned his door to help. A neighbor heard me yell and followed us into the house. The neighbor started to call the old man by name, and after Jarrett called 9-11, the EMS came, I wasn’t of any use.

I hadn’t been near a person so close to death like that day. The man looked like he was going to accept whatever would become of him. He looked like he was giving up. Before I left, using confident language, I told him to keep fighting! The old man stared at me, like he heard me, and understood, and nodded in agreement.

That night Jarrett Siler got the most hot contacts that night, and saved a man’s life. “This was the greatest day of my life.”

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