Couple assists neighbor who had a heart attack
CRANBERRY TWP — A longtime township resident credits his neighbors for saving his life earlier this month after they found him unresponsive and were able to keep him breathing until Cranberry EMS paramedics arrived.
Joe Kroner, 73, was at home in Hannibal Estates off Rochester Road on Oct. 14 getting dinner ready for his wife, Sharon, who was about to get off work from her job at Costco in Cranberry Commons shopping plaza.
Kroner went outside to take his little dog Candy, an 8-year-old pug/peekapoo mix outside for a walk, and the next minute, he was in a Cranberry EMS ambulance on his way to UPMC Passavant in McCandless fighting for his life after suffering a heart attack.
Kroner said if it wasn’t for the actions of his neighbors Chris and Joann Hildreth, who live in nearby Creekwood Commons, he wouldn’t be alive today. “To me, he (Chris) is a hero,” Kroner said.
Joann Hildreth said her husband, who works as a respiratory therapist at UPMC Shadyside Hospital, was outside with their dogs and saw a pair of legs on the ground on a back trail near their home.
He went over to the trail and found Kroner unresponsive and starting to turn purple, but he still had a shallow pulse. Because he had fallen and hit his nose, there was a lot of blood and mud on his face.
Chris Hildreth urged his wife to call 911 as he flipped Kroner over and opened his airway.
Kroner regained consciousness briefly, but fell back into unconsciousness. Hildreth was able to open his air passage again and was getting ready to perform CPR when paramedics arrived.
It was by shear chance that the couple was even home to assist Kroner.
The couple had just arrived at Soergel Orchards in Wexford for an evening out, when a strange feeling came over her.
“We had just gotten there, and for some reason I just had this strange feeling. I felt like I had to go home and check on our dogs. It’s something I never worried about before because they’re old dogs and they’ve stayed home alone before,” Joann Hildreth said.
Adding to the odd nature of the return home, Chris Hildreth let the dogs out and walked with them. Joann Hildreth said her husband rarely walks with the dogs.
This time, for some reason, he did and it was even raining at the time. “That’s when he saw him (Kroner) on the back trail,” she said.
“Talking with Joe (Kroner), he couldn’t understand why God wanted to keep him alive,” she said, pointing out that he previously had triple bypass surgery and also suffers from Multiple Sclerosis.
“I told him, he must have a reason; he sent his own medical staff out to find you.”
Kroner spent four days in the hospital, before being discharged. He underwent a battery of tests. Although doctors confirmed he had a heart attack, they still have yet to determine what exactly caused it as traditional medical indicators were all determined to be normal, Kroner said.
Kroner has lived in Cranberry Township since 1992, moving here from the Zelienople/Harmony area where he lived since 1960.
Although still a little weak, he is now recovering at home.
“You start thinking ‘why am I alive?’ If it was another five minutes, I would have been dead. There would have been a funeral this week,” Kroner said.
Joann Hildreth said the Kroners are good people and great neighbors. “You couldn’t ask for a better couple (to be neighbors),” she said. “I’m glad that’s he’s OK.”
