Heart attack survivor reunites with good Samaritans who saved his life
By Josh Kristianto
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OMAHA, Nebraska (KETV) — A heart attack survivor gets to thank the heroes who saved him last week as he was driving home with his wife on I-80 near the ILQ exits returning from the airport.
More than a week since KETV brought you Thomas Watt’s incredible recovery, he could not hold back his emotions Friday afternoon as he embraced for the first time the mother, nurse and young teenager who ultimately helped save his life.
Watt says there are simply no words that can describe how grateful he is for what they have done.
It is a reunion that almost never happened. The 58-year-old Watt had no pulse when Delanne Porter, Nieves Ferraz and Jonathan Furtado stopped their cars on I-80 and ran over to help.
Watt had suffered a heart attack and essentially died on the steering wheel of his SUV. Now, he is praising his three guardian angels for their compassion and heroism.
“How do you say thank you to somebody that saved your life? I owe them my life, my family. My family’s my world, my 5-year-old daughter’s my universe,” said Watt.
The emotions are still fresh and lifelong bonds were already forming, including with the 17-year-old eagle scout Furtado, who had just been CPR-certified a week before the ordeal.
Furtado’s skills, maturity and faith steadied Watt’s wife, Angela, who was in shock.
“I got to sit down on a cushion at least. I was trying to think, OK, how can I calm her down? How can I calm her down? She’s quite frantic at the moment,” said Furtado.
“I feel like the Lord places people in our lives as angels on earth, and that’s what I take comfort in,” said Angela.
While Watt says he has never asked for help his whole life, it is the help he could not ask for that, in the end, carried him on.
“You know, they don’t know me. They’re trying to go do their own life and they risk their lives to save mine. I mean, it’s just amazing,” said Watt.
Watt tells KETV he has three more weeks of rehab and that his heart has been cleared of any blockage. Doctors tell him that there has been no brain damage because of that lack of oxygen when he had no pulse.
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