Boy Scouts help save man who went into cardiac arrest on flight

NEW YORK -- A group of Jewish scouts are being credited with saving a man who went into cardiac arrest in the middle of a flight bound for LaGuardia Airport.

Scout leader Evan Gilder was among a contingency of Jewish troops from the tri-state on a high adventure camping trip to Cimarron, New Mexico.

"We had two weeks previously become and know how to function as a team," Gilder said.

On the four-hour Southwest flight, the flight attendant got on the P.A. and asked if a doctor was on the plane. The airline says there were three doctors and a nurse onboard, but they needed help.

"CPR is a really, really difficult thing to do. You can do it for a few minutes and you really tire out," Gilder said.

"He's like, 'Boys - everyone who knows CPR training, go! Go! Go!,'" 16-year-old Eagle Scout Ariel Yaron said.

17-year-old Moshe Grimaldi joined him.

The scouts helped to perform CPR for over 40 minutes, trying to get a pulse until the plane could make an emergency landing in Pittsburgh, at which time the flight attendant asked them to take their seats.

"One of the doctors, in the calmest of voices says, 'If we do that this patient will die for sure'," Gilder said.

The scouts kept going until the end of the flight.

"As we're sorta getting close, they detect a pulse," Gilder said.

"To see someone go through this- you or someone you love, suddenly your whole life is in the hands of a couple of boy scouts," Yaron said.

A moment in time Yaron has been prepared for having learned CPR as a scout at an early age.

"It is one of the most important, most paramount commandments in Judaism to save a life. It is doing what you're supposed to as a Jew and a boy scout and just as an upstanding citizen. I am honored," Yaron said.