EAU CLAIRE, WIS.—A Winnipeg man who had a heart attack but was kept alive by a stranger just minutes after stopping to help her along a Wisconsin interstate has been tearfully reunited with his rescuer and the first responders who helped saved his life.

Victor Giesbrecht, 61, expressed his gratitude to Sara Berg, the Eau Claire, Wis., woman who performed CPR on him just a few kilometres further along the Interstate 94 from where he had helped her to change a tire.

“He said ‘thank you’ and we hugged, then we both started crying,” Berg told the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram.

First responders also attended the reunion at Giesbrecht’s room at Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire.

Giesbrecht, who was being released Thursday, still seemed to be taken aback to be the centre of all the attention.

“I’m just a general old joe, you know,” he said by telephone from his hospital room.

“To have so much attention and so many people to care for me is just overwhelming. I always like to be the caregiver. I’m not used to being taken care of.”

Giesbrecht and his wife, Ann, were driving to Indiana Nov. 5 when they saw Berg, 40, and her cousin, Lisa Meier, stopped on the side of the interstate with a flat tire.

Giesbrecht pulled over, retrieved a jack from his pickup and helped change the flat.

“We felt that she needed help and we were able and capable of giving her help, so we stopped and changed her tire.”

Minutes after driving away, however, Giesbrecht suffered a heart attack and lost consciousness. His wife brought their pickup to a stop and called 911. Then along came the women whom Giesbrecht had just helped.

When Berg, a certified nursing assistant, discovered that Giesbrecht wasn’t breathing, she started CPR. First responders arrived a short time later and used an automated external defibrillator to restore a normal heart rhythm.

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“I met her here last night,” he said. “I was very grateful for everybody and what they all did.

“If she wouldn’t have come along, I don’t think we’d be here right now.”