Heroes show up at the most unexpected times. Thirty-nine-year-old Randy Tompkins jumped into a moving car on Friday afternoon in Dixon, Illinois, to save a man who was having a seizure on the road.
Tompkins was driving his truck around 4 pm when he spotted a car in the wrong lane heading in his direction. He figured something was wrong and the driver was having a seizure because he had his arms up by his chest.
“I didn’t know if the guy was gonna push the gas, jerk the wheel or whatever, so I waited as long as I could to back up,” Tompkins told Chicago Tribune. “Once he got about a half-car length away from me, I parked my truck at an angle and jumped out of my vehicle.”
The incident, which was captured by a police dash-cam, shows the police rushing to the scene soon after. Tompkins said he put two fingers into the convulsing driver’s mouth to protect him from biting his own tongue.
“I did that really fast, and then I stopped the car,” he said. “I was worried, but I would do that for anybody. It just happened to be I was at the right place at the right time.”
As it turns out, this isn’t the first time Tompkins has witnessed something like this. A car hit him when he was 16 years old. The 92-year-old woman at the wheel had a seizure back then and the experience taught him how to act quickly in such situations.
“I always wished I could have gotten out of the way...so I’m always prepared,” he said. “When I’m driving, I scan ahead as far as I can see because you never know.”
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