A woman jumped into action on her first date with a man when he collapsed from a heart attack.
KGO reported that 10 months ago, in October, Max Montgomery, 56, came back from surfing on the beach in Santa Cruz, California, with his date, Dr. Andi Traynor, when he had a heart attack and fell on the sand.
KABC reported that time-lapse video captured by Alexander Baker, a beachgoer photographing seagulls that day, shows Traynor give Montgomery CPR, keeping him alive until emergency crews arrived to take him to the hospital. Montgomery had open-heart surgery the next day.
"I happened to be with the right person at the right time," Montgomery told KTLA Wednesday.
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"I wasn't thinking about anything other than taking care of him," Traynor, an anesthesiologist, told KTLA. "I do deal with medical emergencies all the time, but I would say what was different at this time was that I was on the beach."
According to the couple, Montgomery’s heart was stopped for 17 minutes, but he’s since made a strong recovery and the two are still dating.
“My heart healed from the inside out,” Montgomery said. “I’m so lucky that I’ve been madly in love ever since.”
The pair are just now sharing their story to raise awareness for CPR as a life-saving measure. Montgomery is the founder of Paddle4Good, a nonprofit that includes a CPR workshop program. Traynor is a board member of the organization.
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