Off-duty Indiana State Trooper saves man collapsed behind the wheel

PORTER, Ind. (WLS) -- Trooper Thomas Maymi is someone you want in an emergency, but don't call him a hero.

"No, absolutely not. I don't consider myself a hero. It's part of the job, and that's why... that's one of the reasons why I'm here," he said.

Maymi was off-duty when he was driving on U.S. Route 20 in Porter, Ind., Friday, May 11. In an oncoming SUV, he said he spotted a woman in the passenger seat frantically gripping the wheel.

Her husband, the driver, was apparently having a heart attack.

"The passenger was steering the vehicle, and I saw the elderly man. He was slumped over, leaning to the right.

The passenger managed to turn left, barely missing a telephone pole before guiding the SUV into an area of tall grass where mud stopped the vehicle. Maymi ventured into the brush after them.

"It didn't look good at all," he said. "He wasn't breathing. He was slumped over. He didn't have a pulse. He wasn't conscious."

Maymi dragged the 78-year-old driver through water and mud to a patch of dry land where he performed chest compressions and eventually revived him.

"When he started moaning and breathing on his own, I was pretty happy," Maymi said.

The driver, who lives in Dyer, Ind., was taken to a hospital. ABC7 Eyewitness News was told he is home and doing all right.