Two teenagers were reunited when they rescued a man who was seriously injured in an accident in Chula Vista late Monday night.
Aljael Ramirez, 18, and 19-year-old Giovanni Lucatero both stopped separately along Interstate I-805 around 11 p.m. when they saw a man hurt on the road. The driver had lost control of his car and was ejected after his car rolled over.
Both teens pulled over to help. While they were performing CPR on the driver, they recognized each other. Turns out they're high school buddies who used to swim together.
“I'm doing chest compressions and he looks at me and he goes, 'Choco?' And I go, 'What's up man?'” said Ramirez.
Lucatero is training to be an aerial survival technician in the coast guard and Ramirez is a volunteer firefighter. The duo helped each other perform CPR, which was able to save the man’s life.
"And at that point all the stress I was feeling as soon I saw him it immediately went away cause I knew we both knew what we were doing,” said Lucatero.
This isn’t the first time the teens have been confronted with a lifesaving situation. Ramirez is volunteering with La Mesa Fire and hopes to one day save lives for a living.
"I remember when I was a little kid, I'd be dressed up in rain boots and a fire helmet going into Albertson’s to go shopping,” he said. “I was just that kid always in a fire fighter jacket.”
Lucatero’s father worked in emergency response and said he grew up listening to his stories.
“Whenever he'd come back from fires, I'd have his firefighting gear on,” he said.
So it was a complete coincidence that the biggest rescue of Ramirez and Lucatero’s young lives also turned out to be a happy reunion.
“It was instant comfort to see him,” said Ramirez. “I said, ‘Okay, we're going to be okay.’”
