SEPTA police officer saves heart attack victim

UPPER DARBY, Pa. (WPVI) -- A SEPTA police officer is being hailed as a hero after saving a man's life at the 69th Street Station early Saturday morning.

It was 12:45 a.m. when Officer Matthew Ryan was working his typical shift, which started like any typical night.

"Friday night, a normal Friday, I was just going to go out and do what they tell me to do," said Officer Ryan.

But then a man, Officer Ryan estimates was 50-60-years-old, tumbled down the stairs going down to the platform to catch a train.

Officer Ryan said, "There were people there that were just standing there, nobody wanted to help."

Then what happened next, he says seemed to take place in the blink of an eye. He immediately spotted these were the signs of a heart attack.

"He wasn't responding, he didn't have a pulse, his lips were Turing blue, and he wasn't breathing. I did a sweep of his airway to see if he was choking, he wasn't," said Officer Ryan.

As the man was lying on the ground, he began administering CPR.

SEPTA Police are trained in CPR and Ryan says in that instant somehow his instinct took over.

He said, "It was instinct. You remember what you were trained to do and you do it."

And it's lucky for the man who was lying on the ground that officer Ryan was there too. Right now he is believed to be in critical condition at the hospital.

Officer Ryan says, "I am here to help people, so is everyone I work with."

Officer Ryan is being credited with saving someone's life, but he says he wouldn't call himself a hero.

"Aren't here to be heroes, we are here to help people," he added.

Lt Frank O'Brien from SEPTA said, "I'm sure officer Ryan would say he was just doing his job, and he did a very good job."