Letter Carrier Christopher Petersen was delivering mail on Christmas Eve in a Cary, NC, neighborhood when a customer yelled out from a nearby doorway: “Somebody help me! I think my husband is having a heart attack!”
Petersen rushed to the scene, where he found that Mike Hodgin had collapsed while cooking.
While 911 was called, the Postal Service employee performed CPR for approximately two minutes until Hodgin was revived.
A neighbor who witnessed the rescue told NBC affiliate WRAL that she was amazed by Petersen’s life-saving expertise and his calm demeanor as he put on his satchel and left once emergency responders arrived.
“He was like a cowboy into the sunset,” the woman said. “Like he just did what he had to do and he went on his way.”
Petersen offered this reflection: “I am a believer that everything happens for a reason, and now the reason is quite apparent. I was meant to be at that place at that time.”