An untrained bystander did CPR on a stranger on a bridge — now they're planning a beach trip together

John Jenks rode his bike across Richmond, Virginia's Nickel Bridge to watch the sunrise, as he often does — and woke up in a hospital. He had collapsed with a sudden cardiac arrest, with no warning signs at all. What happened in between belongs to Mattias Clouse, a bystander who saw him on the ground, called 911, and — with no training — let the dispatcher talk him through CPR, pressing on a stranger's chest until paramedics arrived and used a defibrillator to restart Jenks' heart. Jenks recovered so fully that he now rides 10 to 20 miles a day. 'I feel like I'm in better shape now than I've been in 30 years,' he says. And he has plans for his rescuer: 'He doesn't know it yet, but he's going on a beach trip with us.' A cardiac arrest turned a stranger into a family friend.