Tito Gonzalez honored for Paul Waller's life with CPR
When Paul Waller told his friend Tito Gonzalez that he didn't feel too well and was going to skip a workout at the YMCA last spring, those could have been his last words.
Not too long after the chat, he was stricken by a heart attack.
Gonzalez, sensing something just wasn't right, decided he would stop by Waller's home in Rochester's South Wedge to check on his friend.
He found Waller in cardiac arrest and immediately administered CPR, a skill he learned in high school but had never had to use. Waller, 59, will forever be grateful to Gonzalez, 26, who chose to pass along praise to a higher power.
"I'd like to thank God because sometimes our instincts are not our own," he said. "I don't know why I went over. Possibly the voice of God was telling me something's wrong."
Waller and Gonzalez, who are deaf, met about two years ago at a group gathering.
Gonzalez provided the life-saving help until emergency responders from the Rochester Fire Department and Rural/Metro Medical Services arrived.
"This case is an especially gratifying one for us in that everything went right," said Thomas Bonfiglio, general manager of Rural/Metro.
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