Good Samaritan Performs CPR, Saves Stranger's Life On 6th Ave

NEW YORK(CBSNewYork) -- A family is grateful after a mystery man became the difference between life and death on a busy Manhattan street corner on Friday.

Jayson Kroft, 40, a lawyer from Canada was visiting his family in New York; he was walking down 6th Ave near 45th street with his wife, two daughters, and his brother when he gripped his chest and dropped to the ground. Kroft was suffering a massive heart attack.

WCBS 880's Monica Miller reports

"Very quickly we noticed he was starting to turn blue so we got really nervous, so quickly dialed 9-1-1 while he was shouting for somebody to stop and help," Jayson's brother Ryan told CBS 2's Amy Dardashtian.

A crowd of people formed around Kroft, but only one of them knew CPR and the clock was ticking.

"What the hospital told us is that with cardiac arrest if you don't get CPR within four minutes of the heart stopping, you'll have massive brain damage," Ryan explained.

Following the hysteria on the street corner the family never got to thank the good Samaritan, he simply vanished. If the family does get a chance to thank the man Sharon Kroft told CBS 2 that she already knows what she will do.

"I'll give him a big hug and I'll just say thank you, because you saved all of us, you saved our entire family," she said.

Jayson is now recovering in the hospital following a successful triple bypass operation.

The Krofts hope to work with organizations to educate people on the importance of learning CPR. Only thirty-two percent of heart attack victims get the CPR that they need from bystanders, according to the American Heart Association.

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