Watch above: A Beaumont man is thanking three strangers, including an ETS driver, who came to his aid during a heart attack after an Eskimos game. Shallima Maharaj has the story.
EDMONTON – Bill Elias was taking in the Eskimos game with his 15-year-old grandson last Saturday when he started developing chest pains.
After grabbing a bite to eat, they started making their way back to their seats.
“We were about halfway through the third quarter when we got back up to the top, and I was developing chest pains,” Elias recalled. “But I didn’t want to startle him, so I just kind of hid it a bit.”
When the fourth quarter rolled around, the pain became too much to handle, and Elias told his grandson they’d have to leave the Calgary-Edmonton match-up early.
“We got onto the bus – we were travelling back to the Town Centre Park-and-Ride centre – and the chest pains started getting worse and worse and worse.”
The Beaumont man noticed two fellow passengers – a man and a woman – were keeping a close eye on him and noticed he was in distress.
“He said ‘you OK?’ I said ‘no.’ He said ‘do you need help?’ I said ‘yes.’”
The woman identified herself as a nurse and offered to help.
“The nurse… had already talked to the bus driver and they made arrangements to make a little bit of a detour and they came as close to the Grey Nuns as possible,” said Elias.
“He looked like he was in a cold sweat and he was leaning over,” said Brent Downie, the ETS bus driver. “The lady must have been a nurse or something because there was definitely something wrong,” he said.
“I basically just made a judgement call because time is of the essence. We were close enough to a hospital, so I decided to detour off route and get him to medical attention as quickly as possible.”
When they arrived, the male passenger ran into the Grey Nuns hospital to grab a wheelchair for Elias and race him back to the emergency ward.
His grandson called family members and the two strangers continued to offer support.
“They both stayed with us until my wife and others got there.”
“To have two people who didn’t know you get involved right off the bat was really good for me,” Elias said, choking up.
Medical staff ran tests that revealed Elias was having a heart attack.
He was transported to another hospital to have the clot unblocked and three stents put in.
However, it wasn’t smooth sailing from there. After returning to the Grey Nuns, Elias lost consciousness. When he awoke, he was told he had to be shocked with a defibrillator and CPR had to be performed for two minutes.
He says he is now doing fine, but credits the medical staff, the bus driver, and those two anonymous strangers.
“I would just like to say thank you very much.
“If it wasn’t for them – sure, things might have turned out as well – but for people to get involved, it’s great,” said Elias, his voice breaking.
“It hasn’t sunk in yet,” said Downie. “I think anyone in my job would have pretty much done the same thing.”
Elias thinks that seeing the kindness of strangers first-hand was also a wonderful thing for his grandson.
“For him to see that strangers did get involved, I think is a great thing.”
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