Scouts save man in cardiac arrest on flight to LaGuardia

NEW YORK (PIX11) -- Their motto is "Be prepared." Some New York and New Jersey Scouts showed they were truly ready for anything when a man needed CPR on their recent flight to LaGuardia.

The group, affiliated with the National Jewish Committee on Scouting, was returning from a scouting trip to New Mexico on July 11. Midair, a fellow passenger on the Southwest Flight, collapsed. The flight attendants called for medical personnel.

Troop Committee Chair Evan Gilder, who is CPR certified, said the man was in cardiac arrest and quickly realized he would need to create a CPR line to administer continuous CPR. He called on several of his Scouts to help.

"We're focused on what needs to be done here. You can really only do CPR for 3 to 4 minutes. It's not feasible to do it anymore because you tire, and everything degrades," Gilder told PIX11 News.

Eagle Scout Ariel Yaron, 16, of Troop 611 in Brooklyn, was among those in line to perform the lifesaving technique. It's a lesson he first learned as a Boy Scout in fourth or fifth grade.

"I knew what I was doing because I was trained. It's simply what I had to do. It's what was demanded of me in the moment," he said. "It's very scary, adrenaline is high," Yaron told PIX11 News.

The Southwest Flight was diverted to Pittsburgh and landed 40 minutes later. Yaron and Gilder say the man had a pulse when they landed.

Southwest Airlines sent the Scouts a thank you letter and a $100 voucher each. The Scouts do not know the identity of the man they helped. Yaron said they are hoping he and his family are doing okay.

"Whatever it is, be prepared for it. If it wasn't for the Boy Scouts on that flight, coming back from a Boy Scout designated trip, who knows what would have happened to him," Yaron added.

"We're all connected to God. I mean, He put us there for a reason; we were at the right place at the right time, where we were called upon to do something, and we did it," Gilder said