STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. – Tuesday on Local 4 News at 6, Local 4 told viewers about the search for a woman who saved the life of a teenager who went into cardiac arrest at a restaurant in Sterling Heights.
The woman performed CRP on the 15-year-old boy after he fell out of his chair in the middle of the Country Cabin restaurant.
Robert Brown III and his father were searching for the woman who saved his life, and now they've succeeded.
Susan Pendygraft was having a pretty big week already. She's off to New Orleans to get married Thursday, so she has a lot on her plate. But after our story aired at 6 p.m., her phone exploded with texts.
Pendygraft didn't know Robert or his father, but she knew she had to do something when the teen fell off his chair and didn't get up.
Pendygraft jumps into action
"I said, 'Jim, turn around. Something is wrong with that kid. He's shaking now,'" Pendygraft said.
She called 911, and the operator said she needed to perform CPR. She had just been certified this summer at work, so she started while her fiance checked for a pulse.
"It seemed like it was forever with the compressions," Pendygraft said.
Police and firefighters arrived and took over, giving the teenager aid and a shot to revive him. When they hauled him out of the restaurant, he had a pulse, and Pendygraft sat back down in the booth and her adrenaline crashed.
"I sat there," she said. "I was crying."
Teenager wants to thank hero
"I'm just happy I didn't leave the earth yet," Robert said. "I'm still with him," he said of his father.
On Aug. 26, the father and son were starting off their morning at the Country Cabin restaurant, where Robert planned to apply for a job.
"I was eating and I asked for an application, like, 'Are you hiring?' and she said, 'Yeah,'" Robert said. "I got the application and started filling it out. Next thing I know, I fell out (of my chair). If that lady wasn't there to help me, I don't know where I'd be or how I'd be or if I would be alive right now. I'm glad she was there at the right place at the right time."
His father, Robert Brown Jr., recalled the terrifying moments.
"So much was going through my mind," he said. "'Just wake up, baby. Wake up.'"
Robert was revived, and now, a month later, the blessings are still rolling in. Robert Brown Jr. received a phone call from Rico Gjonaj, of the Country Cabin.
"We're going to do a little more than offer him a job," Gjonaj said. "This Saturday, we're going to have a fundraiser dedicated to your son."
"I was happy," Robert said. "I got a job, finally."
Robert still has a long road ahead of him, but he wanted to reunite with the woman who saved his life.