Off-duty trooper saves driver, 78, from heart attack in NW Indiana

An off-duty Indiana state trooper saved a 78-year-old man from a heart attack Friday evening in northwest Indiana.

Thomas Maymi, an officer assigned to the Lowell post, was in his personal vehicle about 6 p.m. driving east on U.S. Route 20 near Waverly Road in Porter, Indiana when he saw a woman steering an SUV from the front passenger seat, according to Indiana State Police.

She steered the SUV south onto Waverly, almost hit a telephone pole, then went across a gravel parking lot and stopped in high grass because of the wet and muddy ground, police said. When Maymi went up to the car, the woman said she thought her husband, a Dyer resident, was having a heart attack.

When the trooper checked, the man did not have a pulse and showed no signs of breathing, police said. With the help of two passersby, Maymi moved the man about 25 feet to dry, flat ground and gave him chest compressions. At one point, the 78-year-old opened his eyes and took shallow breaths on his own before he lost consciousness again.

By the time paramedics arrived, Maymi had helped the man regain consciousness and breathe on his own, according to police. He was taken to Porter Regional Hospital in Valparaiso.

The man’s wife told Maymi that her husband had struggled when he stopped to put air in one of their tires, police said. When he got back into the SUV, he told her he didn’t feel well.