![\"Cindy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Cindy-Zimmerman.jpg\")
<\/p>\nJohn Gallagher prayed for help \u2014 not for himself, but for the disoriented young woman he held after she was suffering what he thought might be a stroke.<\/p>\n
Seconds felt like minutes after Gallagher, an equipment operator with the Pennsylvania Turnpike, pulled over behind the woman\u2019s car after noticing it stopped on the narrow shoulder in the westbound construction zone just east of the Downingtown interchange.<\/p>\n
As Gallagher and co-worker Doug Sarver approached the car, it was obvious the motorist was in distress.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was trying to get out of the vehicle at first when we first pulled up to her,\u201d Sarver said. \u201cHer eyes were rolled in the back of her head and then she\u2019d look at us like she was scared of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gallagher called the turnpike\u2019s dispatch center in Highspire, Dauphin County, and requested an ambulance and a state trooper.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, he got into the driver\u2019s side as best he could, facing her while using the door jamb as a seat.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just held the back of her neck to keep it straight and was rubbing her back, saying, \u2018Everything\u2019s OK,\u2019\u201d Gallagher said, \u201cand I was praying: \u2018Please, God, have them get here fast. Someone show up, please, anybody.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018I was nosey\u2019<\/p>\n
Just then, a car stopped on the shoulder in front of them. Gallagher thought it might be a member of the woman\u2019s family, but it turned out to be the answer to his prayers.<\/p>\n
Cindy Zimmerman, an emergency room nurse, ran up just as the woman passed out in Gallagher\u2019s arms. She told him that she is a nurse and just happened to be passing by.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s like, \u2018What do we got?\u2019 And I said, \u2018She just collapsed,\u2019\u201d Gallagher recalled. \u201cShe (Zimmerman) reached over to check her pulse, and she goes, \u2018I don\u2019t have a pulse.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Zimmerman was returning home to Spring Township about 2:15 p.m. on Dec. 10 after her shift in the emergency department of Temple Health \u2014 Chestnut Hill Hospital in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
She noticed a car stopped on the side of the road. Just ahead of that was a Turnpike Commission vehicle.<\/p>\n
\u201cI looked over, mostly because I was nosey, and I noticed a person slumped over in the car,\u201d she said. \u201cA man was sitting in the car with his back against the steering wheel, holding her up. That just didn\u2019t look right to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
She wasn\u2019t sure if she should stop, but then her instincts as a medical professional took over.<\/p>\n
Zimmerman told Gallagher to lower the back of the driver\u2019s seat, and she quickly assessed the patient, now flat on her back.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was doing what I call agonal breathing \u2014 she was breathing but wasn\u2019t getting much air,\u201d Zimmerman recalled. \u201cShe was guppy breathing. Even with her lying flat, I couldn\u2019t find a pulse. I started doing CPR.\u201d<\/p>\n
She confirmed with the worker that an ambulance had been called.<\/p>\n
A basic life support unit pulled up, and she informed the crew that the patient was in cardiac arrest.<\/p>\n
BLS service stabilizes a patient, while advanced life support actively treats life-threatening conditions with advanced skills and equipment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt looked like she was having a seizure,\u201d Zimmerman said. \u201cOnce they got her into the ambulance, she started to come around a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
A firetruck and a second ambulance \u2014 an ALS unit \u2014 arrived along with a trooper.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, vehicles passed through the cattle chute within a few feet of the workers and the good Samaritan.<\/p>\n
Two things about the turnpike workers struck Zimmerman. On one hand, they were unfazed by the proximity of vehicular traffic. On the other hand, Gallagher, in particular, was very emotional about what had just transpired.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe kept saying, \u2018I just didn\u2019t want her to die,\u2019\u201d she said, \u201cand I looked up and saw tears in his eyes, and he hugged me. It just made my day.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI lost my brother not too long ago,\u201d Gallagher explained, \u201cand that\u2019s all I kept thinking was because Christmas was coming up, New Year\u2019s was coming up. This is someone\u2019s mother, sister, wife, aunt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Helping motorists<\/p>\n
Gallagher and Sarver aren\u2019t assigned to the turnpike\u2019s GEICO Safety Patrol. Those roles are filled by other people in their department who hold the job title of maintenance utility worker. They patrol the road to assist with flat tires and other road emergencies.<\/p>\n
Workers have helped deliver a baby along the turnpike as well as getting stray animals off the road, turnpike spokeswoman Marissa Orbanek said.<\/p>\n
Turnpike customers can get help by dialing *11, which connects the caller to the dispatch center.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do have 24\/7 coverage, so drivers are never alone when they\u2019re on the turnpike,\u201d Orbanek said.<\/p>\n
Sometimes animals even need to be rescued.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a horse running loose on the turnpike,\u201d Gallagher recalled, \u201cand a few of our guys had to try to corral him and push him back up to the hill off the road.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Heroes that day\u2019<\/p>\n
Gallagher and Sarver were returning to their home base \u2014 the maintenance Devault Maintenance Shed in Charlestown Township, Chester County \u2014 when they came upon the woman in distress in what they refer to as the Malvern section.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
COURTESY OF CINDY ZIMMERMAN<\/p>\n
Cindy Zimmerman of Spring Township, who works as an emergency department nurse in Temple Health – Chestnut Hill Hospital in Philadelphia, stopped along the Pennsylvania Turnpike on Dec. 10 to render aid to a motorist suffering a serious medical episode. (COURTESY OF CINDY ZIMMERMAN)<\/p>\n
Zimmerman believes she would not have had the opportunity to perform the life-saving intervention had Gallagher and Sarver not stopped moments earlier to come to her aid.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a nurse for 35 years,\u201d she said. \u201cI was just really thankful they stopped because she was trying to get out of the car. We were in a work zone. If she had gotten out, she would have been hit. She would have gone right into that traffic. No doubt.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were the heroes that day. They did such a great job making sure she was safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gallagher said he\u2019s just glad the story has a happy ending. From what he understands, the woman is going to survive.<\/p>\n
\u201cGod bless Cindy,\u201d he said of Zimmerman. \u201cYou know, she came at the right time. I mean, that was my guardian angel because she showed up right when she collapsed. And she\u2019s that lady\u2019s guardian angel, too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Gallagher prayed for help \u2014 not for himself, but for the disoriented young woman he held after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,1557,182,139,28,128,130,129,706],"class_list":["post-97000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-chester-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-top-stories-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}