WESTFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – When retired Holyoke court officer Mark Stevens suffered a heart attack and drove his pickup truck into a tree, he couldn’t of possibly known that school nurse Christina Lovelace would end up saving his life.
22News was there for the recent reunion with Mark and his wife at Christina’s Westfield home. They checked out the tree that Mark’s pickup had collided with as his life was slipping away.
Christina said, “He had no pulse and he was actually stuck in the driver’s seat of the car. Oh I was devastated. I’m a nurse, and I don’t see success stories of this magnitude, even on a good setting when you have everything available immediately.”
In the back of her mind, Christina was afraid her best efforts might not be enough to save Mark’s life.
Mark said, “I can’t be more thankful to Christina. Never met the woman in my life and I was so happy she saved my life, I was so happy I was alive, and she did it. The doctors told me that day, if she didn’t perform CPR on me, I wouldn’t be here to walk my daughter down the aisle. It was exactly one month to the day, I was supposed to walk my daughter down the aisle.”
Mark’s daughter expressed her gratitude to Christina for what this hometown hero had done to save her dad’s life, so that he could walk with her down the aisle.
“I just thought that was absolutely amazing, because you know, my dad walked me down the aisle, So I got It I understood what that is like,” said Christina.
Christina will receive her recognition as a Western Massachusetts Red Cross Hometown Hero at the Heroes Breakfast the morning of March 17th.Other 2016 Hometown Heroes:
