STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — A night of celebration turned deadly for a man in State College over the weekend until a young woman came to his rescue. She is now being called a hero. The girl thought she was going out for a good time to celebrate Penn State’s victory against Akron Saturday night, but when she got to the off-campus party it was scary chaos. “They came running down and said, ‘Everyone get out of the house, we’re calling the ambulance, a kid’s passed out without a pulse,” said Kelly Gavel. “And I said, ‘Where is he?'” The 19-year-old has been trained in CPR for five years but she’s never had to use it until Sunday morning when a 20-year-old man dropped to the floor of a party with a massive heart attack. Her training instantly kicked in. “I checked his airway, checked his circulation and nothing,” Gavel said. She said she gave the man about 200 compressions, the whole time cheering the stranger on in her head in hopes he’d pull through. “That was all that was going through my head, ‘I’m going to get you back, I promise.’ I was like making promise to this guy. I don’t know who he is, but, ‘I will get you back,'” she said. Then there was a bit of a miracle. “It was around 200 (compressions) we finally heard just something. It sounded like the air was finally getting into his throat,” Gavel said. It happened at a house in the 400 block of South Burrowes Street around 12:30 am Sunday. A paramedic team got on scene and took over, using an AED, before taking the man to the hospital. But Gavel is being called the hero. “Her quick actions are really what helped him out in the recovery process where they were able to bring him back to life,” said Lt. Chris Fishel of the State College police. “The paramedic came out of the ambulance, came over to me and shook my hand and said, ‘Without you this young man would have lost his life this evening. You saved a life.’ (He) shook my hand (and) drove off,” Gavel said. “I was like (sigh) and then and then I was like, ‘Oh my gosh,’ and I started to cry.” 6 News caught up with her at the Catholic Student Faith Center, where she volunteers. Still a bit startled, she said this experience has changed her. From this day on she is a bit of a different woman. “Nothing really matters when you save someone’s life,” Gavel said. “It just puts your whole life into perspective that you’re alive right now and you’re healthy and it just really put everything into perspective that that is the most valuable thing that you could ever have is your health.” Police said the man was recovering at the Hershey Medical Center as of Monday evening. 6 News was told he is breathing and his heart is beating on its own. They believe he has a medical condition that was unknown. Gavel said she would love the opportunity to meet him and his family.
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