Lupe VanMeter was Christmas shopping with her boyfriend at Harley Davidson when she suddenly collapsed. She says she was having a stroke and a seizure all at once.
That’s when Ben Patton, a manager at Harley Davidson, was immediately at her side making sure she stayed conscious and kept breathing.
“Talking to me and holding my hand…and every time I would fade, he would bring me back from where I was at,” said VanMeter. “The doctors told me that if he hadn’t did what he did that I wouldn’t have made it to the hospital. They would have been calling the coroner.”
Patton said he didn’t perform life saving techniques, just a little bit of human compassion.
“It was just another human being who as on the ground that needed a little bit of attention so I talked to her and held her hand just like she said.”
Patton and VanMeter agree—they were meant to cross one another’s paths.
“Day to day things happen. It takes ten minutes or five minutes out of your time. It doesn’t cost you anything,” said Patten. “It’s just a little bit of compassion for another human being and now I’ve got a friend for life.”
