Stranger leaps into action to save Whitehorse man after heart attack

Sébastien Bernier had just come out of a chiropractor appointment and was pretty relaxed as he drove by Raven Recycling in Whitehorse this past October.

That's when he noticed a cluster of people staring at the ground.

They were looking at 72 year-old David Sloan, who moments before had been sorting his bottles and cans and was now lying motionless on the ground.

Curious as to what was happening, Bernier rolled down his window and was informed that Sloan had just collapsed.

"The look on their faces, I knew something was happening but I didn't think it was a heart attack, just that someone had fainted," said Bernier. 

When he learned of Sloan's situation Bernier, who worked with a ski patrol in Quebec and as a firefighter, immediately took action.

At this point Sloan had been unresponsive for almost two minutes.

"I started to do CPR right away," said Bernier. 

Two minutes later, Sloan began breathing again.

That's when the paramedics took over.

"I stayed around a while after but it was stressful not knowing how he was going to be," said Bernier. "After leaving, I remember driving home and I just started bawling."

Complicating matters for Sloan was the fact his wife Mary was in Chicago when he went into cardiac arrest.

"I got a phone call from Gareth (their son) and he said, 'Dad is going to be ok, that's the first thing I have to tell you, then I have to tell you he just had a massive heart attack,'" said Mary.

She had just spent the past three months visiting her grandson and daughter, and immediately began planning her trip home.