Mounties are praising the bravery shown by two men who put their wellbeing at risk to rescue a woman that suffered a massive heart attack while driving on Highway 1 in Coquitlam, saving her life and that of others drivers on Thursday morning.
Courtney Smith, a sales representative and a family man, wedged his van in front of the woman's vehicle and stopped it when he realized the driver was unconscious. He was driving when he noticed a car out of control, veering into a cement barrier.
"I knew I had the hitch on, so I knew she would hit the hitch," Smith told CTV News. "I just tried to do something that if I was in that situation; somebody would do it for me,"
Ron MacLeod, an enforcement officer with the Agricultural Land Commission, was driving behind both vehicles in distress and soon joined the rescue efforts by activating the emergency lights on his truck, police say.
The two men smashed the windows of the locked car and pulled the unconscious woman out.
"One guy had a wrench trying to break the window. I ran and got my jack and smashed the back window. We jumped into the car and got her out," Smith said.
Officers say the woman had no pulse when rescued and Macleod performed CPR before Mounties arrived on scene with paramedics.
The 44-year-old woman, a mother of three children, was taken to the hospital but remains in critical condition.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Peter Grainger.
