'Right Place, Right Time' As New Lenox Mayor Saves Woman's Life In NYC

NEW LENOX, IL — As onlookers held their breath while Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin lay lifeless on the field Jan. 2, another face popped into the mind of New Lenox Mayor Tim Baldermann.

On the field at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati, paramedics worked to save Hamlin's life after he suffered cardiac arrest, and Baldermann flashed back to his encounter with a woman on a New York City sidewalk days earlier. He had stepped outside his family's apartment they were staying in on vacation, turned a corner, and found her—lips blue, unresponsive—encircled by bystanders near a newsstand.

Knowing the next moments were critical, Baldermann sprung into action. He checked for a pulse, and finding none, cleared the crowd, lowered her to the ground and began chest compressions.

"'Did someone call an ambulance?' he recalled asking the crowd. "With my experience in law enforcement, I thought I should try something."

Baldermann—whose resumé includes 22 years in law enforcement—said he pulled from his toolbox of knowledge and experience gained on that job.

"I could tell she hadn't been gone that long," Baldermann said, of his visual assessment of the woman. He remembers thinking, "at least we've got half a shot."

He performed chest compressions for two minutes, as they waited for paramedics. The crowd remained around them, respectful and supportive, Baldermann said. One woman prayed aloud.

"The people were very concerned," Baldermann said. "When we put her on the ground, they made way.

"It was nice to see how compassionate that whole group of people there were. ... It was a sad situation, but everybody was doing their part."

Baldermann regained a pulse on the woman—whose age Patch could not confirm—and paramedics arrived at the scene at 3rd Avenue and East 68th Street.

"She was still gasping," Baldermann remembered. "She was not able to communicate with us, but she was breathing."

FDNY confirmed a woman at the location suffered cardiac arrest and was taken to New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

Watching Hamlin collapse on the field days later, Baldermann wondered how the woman he had helped was doing. That afternoon seemed as though he had been at the right place at the right time, but had he saved her only for the moment, he wondered. He admitted that at the time, he wasn't sure he would be able to do even that.

"I was not overly optimistic," he told Patch.

A local Patch reporter reached out to the FDNY Office of Public Information, but was unable to verify the woman's condition beyond that when transported to the hospital. Baldermann was disappointed to learn he wouldn't be able to know how successful his efforts had been past those initial minutes, but the encounter has stuck with him. He was moved by the public's reaction to a woman in need—a touching reflection of humanity in the moment.

"There was genuine concern in their eyes and panic in their voices," he said. "They really cared. They could have just kept going. It was nice to see that all those people did their part, and were really concerned."

Baldermann is modest about his efforts that day.

"I was happy to do what I was able to do," he said.