Life is unpredictable. No matter how secure you are in your relationship, family, or career, life always finds a way to surprise you when you least expect it.
For Mary Graham, that surprise came while she and her family were dining at a local Subway restaurant.
While they were enjoying their meal on Alsips’ South Cicero Avenue, Noah, Marys’ two-year-old son, started choking on a Dorito. In an interview with NBC, she said:
“I could see that he wasn’t breathing, and I started to panic.”
“I couldn’t get him out of the stroller fast enough.”
As Mary struggled to help Noah out of his seat, Marilyn, her nine-year-old daughter, rushed to find help.
The little girl ran up to a fellow patron of the restaurant. “My mom needs help and my baby brother’s choking,” she said. Madeline didn’t have far to look for help, however. As soon as the man heard what was happening, he jumped up and followed her to their table.
The stranger grabbed Noah and immediately took action.
“He just took my son out of that stroller as fast as he could, and he bent him over his knee and he applied pressure to his belly and started patting on his back really hard until the chips came out.”
When the Dorito finally dislodged from the boy’s throat, it came out with a bit of vomit.
Mary grabbed the boy to clean him up in the restroom, but when she returned, the Good Samaritan was gone.
She was so thankful for the stranger’s actions, she shared a post on social media hoping to find him. “He deserves a proper thank you, and he deserves much more than I gave him,” she said.
By some stroke of luck, the man’s best friend saw Mary’s social media post and contacted CBS News to organize a reunion.
“It’s heartwarming that I was able to face him and give him a proper ‘thank you’,” she said.
Noah’s rescuer is Patrick Kissane of St John, Indiana. Upon finally meeting him, Noah presented the man with a card that said: “Thank you for being my guarding angel.”
Touched, the man responded: “It means a lot to me. If I’m ever feeling down, I can take a look at that, and it’ll definitely bring me right back up.”
In an interview with CBS Chicago, Patrick discussed the meeting, saying: “It’s amazing just seeing him run around full of life and giving me that hug, he must’ve known I did something to help him.”
Since the event, Grishma Patel, manager of the Alsip Subway, also spoke out about the incident: “It’s really nice to see that there are nice human beings out there; without any selfishness, they are ready to save someone’s life (sic).”
Since being uploaded to YouTube, their story has been viewed over 700k times.
Comments on the video read:
“He was an angel. God sent him there for that.”
“This man is what a hero really is.. He does not need the thanks.. He knows what is did.. God knows too.”
“Well somebody met their guardian angel.”
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