‘It costs nothing to dial 911’: Toronto man expresses gratitude to Good Samaritan

Brijesh Patel was ignored after suffering a heart attack. A Good Samaritan who aided him says he was just doing 'what's human,' an example Patel thinks more people should follow.

A Toronto man is thanking the efforts of a Good Samaritan who came to his aid following a heart attack, while he says many others ignored his pleas to call emergency services.

The actions of the man who saved his life have recently spread like wildfire across social media platforms, serving as a reminder that small acts of kindness take very little effort, and they can be matters of life or death.

Brijesh Patel was in the middle of a workout a few weeks ago at his gym in Liberty Village when he began to feel off.

Leaving with chest tightness, he knew he shouldn’t go home where he lives alone. “The chest pain was getting worse, I was sweating a lot, and then my right hand started feeling numb, tingling,” Patel said to Global News.

In the moment, he says he knew he was having a heart attack.

Sitting on a bench in front of a restaurant, Patel began asking people if they could call him an ambulance. But despite being close enough to people he could touch them, no one was responding to his calls for help.

Finally, a man responded, telling him that his phone was dead. That’s when Patel realized he was holding his own phone, but in his disoriented state, he didn’t know where he was.

Patel says the man ran into a nearby Pi Co. after calling 911, to ask for their address.  Shortly after, he came out to wait with Patel for the ambulance.