A group of Boy Scouts saved a man mid-flight after he went into cardiac arrest.
According to PEOPLE, the Boy Scouts were on their flight home from an adventure camp when a fellow passenger went into cardiac arrest.
At one point during the four-hour flight, which was heading from New Mexico to New York, a flight attendant asked whether there were any doctors on board. Thankfully, three doctors and one nurse stepped up to help. They started CPR on the passenger. However, the flight could not make its emergency landing for another 40 minutes.
At this point, Evan Gilder, the scouts’ leader, recognized the gravity of the situation.
“CPR is a really, really difficult thing to do,” Gilder told ABC News. “You can do it for a few minutes and you really tire out.”
That’s when Gilder called on his scouts for help.
“He’s like, ‘Boys — everyone who knows CPR training, go! Go! Go!,'” said 16-year-old Eagle Scout Ariel Yaron.
Boy Scouts Save Man Who Went Into Cardiac Arrest Mid-Flight
After about 40 minutes of alternating giving the man CPR, the plane was finally able to make its landing. A flight attendant attempted to get the boys to return to their seats.
However, “One of the doctors, in the calmest of voices says, ‘If we do that this patient will die for sure’,” Gilder recalled.
They continued their CPR until doctors detected a pulse.
“As we’re sorta getting close, they detect a pulse,” Gilder said.
“To see someone go through this- you or someone you love, suddenly your whole life is in the hands of a couple of Boy Scouts,” Yaron said.
Reflecting on his life-saving behavior, Yaron oozed with honor and humbleness.
“It is one of the most important, most paramount commandments in Judaism to save a life,” he said. “It is doing what you’re supposed to as a Jew and a boy scout and just as an upstanding citizen. I am honored.”