Late August Marek Widomski collapsed on a sidewalk in Ottawa’s downtown core, but thanks to two strangers, he is alive today.
In a release from Ottawa police, Marek’s daughter Anna was on a mission to find the people who saved her father’s life. She went to the ByWard Market searching for the unseen heroes and asked a police officer. Sgt. Sébastien Lemay reached out to Ottawa paramedics and police dispatch to see if they could track down Marek’s saviors.
What culminated was an emotional reunion, police said.
“I remember I was just walking in the market,” Marek said in a press release. “I remember seeing a wall, then feeling like my heart was going to explode out of my chest — and then nothing.”
Within seconds, two people, Nicholas Firman and Enoch Kwakye, rushed to Marek’s side. One person found a defibrillator from a nearby building while the two started CPR and called 911.
“I remember the feeling of being crushed over and over again,” Marek said. “I felt the shocks, and then everything started coming back.”
Then just before paramedics arrived, Marek remembers a man kneeling next to him and said “You know, this machine saved your life.”
One of the most surprising things for Marek is that in his home country of Poland, it is mandatory for everyone to be CPR certified, but in Canada that’s not the case. In a 2016 poll by Ipsos, statistics noted that a third of households in Canada have no first aid training.
“Life can stop in one second,” he said. “And if someone near you knows what to do, maybe you get another chance like me.”
