BUFFALO, N.Y. — As a parent, feeling helpless when your child needs you is terrible. What’s worse – when that happens in the middle of a busy road.
Wednesday, April 21 was a typical day for Ryan Suitor until he spotted a car, blinkers on, backing up against traffic.
“I noticed some lady running down the road with a child in her arms,” Suitor said.
That was Susan Rosanski.
“I can hear her screaming, ‘help, help, my, my child's dying, my child's dying,” Suitor said.
Her son Kaspar, at 2 years old, spiked a fever.
She was heading to the urgent care when he turned blue and lost consciousness. She didn’t know what to do. As cars zoomed by, Suitor decided he needed to act.
“Got to about here and I stopped and started getting out and I hear screaming so I drove across right here and then picked her up and came back around,” he explained.
Within minutes, they were headed to a nearby hospital.
“It was second nature, the way I reacted to go across the road was, it just instinct,” Suitor continued.
It happened so quickly that Suitor later learned someone had actually reported it as a kidnapping. And while it may have felt like an action movie, this was real life, with real people, who only later would Suitor realize he knew. He’d gone to school with Susan’s husband, and coached one of their other kids.
“I'm like, I know that kid that just went back there. So shocked,” he said.
Thankfully, just like on the big screen, this story has a happy ending. Kasper got out of the hospital a few days later, doing just fine.
Suitor still keeps in touch with Susan and her family. Their kids are even in the same class this year.
He looks back on this day and hopes it inspires others. If you see someone in need, help. It could mean the world.
“I just wanted to help them in time of need and I guess if that's the definition of a hero, then that's a hero,” Suitor said.
That is why Ryan Suitor is your 2021 American Red Cross Adult Good Samaritan Hero.
