You Deserve Good Things!

After performing CPR on her husband for five minutes, Stephanie Guercio didn’t know how she could manage to continue. And then an angel appeared . . .

You’re snoring,” Stephanie Guercio murmured to her husband, waking up a little after midnight in their New Orleans home.

Nudging Mark, she tried to roll him over. But when she did, Stephanie realized those gasps and gurgles weren’t snores at all. Mark was fighting to breathe!

A nurse, Stephanie checked for a pulse—but felt none.

He’s having a heart attack! she realized.

“Breathe, Mark. Please, breathe!” Stephanie pleaded, calling 911. Then, as she began chest compressions, their terrified 20-year-old daughter, Caroline, rushed in. “Dad!” she cried. Dizzy with panic, Caroline raced outside to flag down the EMTS. Please, please, don’t let my dad die! she prayed.

Meanwhile, 26-year-old exterminator Shane Mcgovern was walking home from a ball game when he spotted the young woman in tears. “Are you okay?” he asked. “It’s my dad! I’m waiting for an ambulance!” Caroline sobbed.

Upstairs, Stephanie was still doing compressions.

“Come on! Breathe!” she pleaded, but Mark’s chest remained still.

Usually people giving CPR switch off after two minutes of strenuous effort. But Stephanie was alone— and after five minutes, sharp pain was stabbing her arms.

Though exhausted, she refused to give up.

Just then, a young man she had never met appeared.

“Are you an EMT?” Stephanie blurted. “No. I’m . . . Shane,” he said. Shane had never taken a CPR course, but he’d seen it performed many times on TV— and he knew the song he was supposed to use to keep the beat: “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees’. “Let me,” he told Stephanie.

Placing his hands

where he recalled they should go, Shane began pumping on Mark’s chest— once . . . twice . . . a third time. At first, nothing happened. Please, God, keep this man alive for his family! Shane begged. And then, finally, Mark spluttered a huge breath—just as EMTS arrived and jumpstarted his heart with a defibrillator. As they carried Mark outside, Stephanie overheard Shane talking to Caroline. “Your dad is going to get well, I know it,” he comforted, filling both Stephanie and Caroline’s hearts with hope. As the ambulance pulled away, Shane left, too. At the hospital, doctors determined that Mark needed to

He's having a heart attack! Stephanie realized “Serendipity always rewards the courageous.” Katori Hall

have his aortic valve replaced, but he would recover.

“Thanks to those compressions,” the doctor said.

For that, the family knew whom they had to thank.

But how could they find Shane when all they had was his first name?

I want to give him a hug and thank him for helping save my dad's life, Caroline posted on a neighborhood Facebook page.

A week passed, then two— and just as it seemed their hero would remain a stranger forever . . .

“Is this you?” Shane’s roommate asked, noticing the post.

“Yep! I’m going to go say hi,” he said—then walked just two doors down!

Having moved to New Orleans only a few months earlier, the Guercios hadn’t met Shane until that fateful night. “Shane!” Stephanie cried. “I came by a few times, but you must have been at the hospital,” he explained.

“I’m just glad you came by that night!” Caroline wept. Today, Mark has a new lease on life— and the whole family has a new friend.

“Shane’s more than a neighbor,” Stephanie and Caroline beam. “He’s a lifesaver and our angel!”