Family finds ‘guardian angel’ who saved man’s life in Fort Myers

Reporter: Morgan Rynor Writer: Jack Lowenstein
Published: Updated:
Daughter and father Julie Dehaan and Jeff Sannes. Credit: shared with WINK News.

There is a search for a “guardian angel” who helped save a Southwest Florida man’s life. All the man’s family knows is a female flight attendant came to his rescue. The man’s family says he would not be alive if the woman didn’t stop to help.

Jeff Sannes suffered a heart attack during a bike ride this past weekend. It all happened at the corner of Treeline Avenue and Colonial Boulevard in Fort Myers.

UPDATE: Sannes family have learned who the woman is that performed CPR on him when needed help.

The 61-year-old went out on his bike along the same path he takes every day. But Sannes’ daughter, Julie DeHaan, said he decided to shake things up.

“Oddly enough, he decided to ride his path backwards,” DeHaan said.

And it was a good thing for Sannes because the new route put him alongside who his family believes was his guardian angel at exactly the right time.

“He remembers feeling lightheaded,” DeHaan said. “And he was about to stop to get off his bike, and he doesn’t remember anything after that.”

A heart attack knocked Sannes off his bike, and he laid unconscious on the side of the road. That’s when a mystery woman jumped in to help.

“Everybody who’s at the hospital has said like if she wasn’t there, he wouldn’t have made it,” DeHaan said. “Like he flat lined, everything, and so she was there pumping all of his blood and keeping him alive for them.”

Surgeons performed a quintuple bypass on Sannes Monday morning. He is alive and recovering. We are told Sannes and his family will meet the woman who helped save his life when he is released from the ICU.

“Thank you. Thank you so much. If it wasn’t for you, he wouldn’t be here,” DeHaan said. “The timing of all of that. Like, clearly his heart was going to give out when it gave out, and the fact that he rode backwards, and she was there, it’s all God.”

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