Mystery man helps family breathe easy
The kindness of a stranger saved Carol Wrazen’s life when she stumbled out of the computer room in her Depew home choking on a piece of kielbasa.
Family members went into panic mode when they saw Wrazen, 64, turning blue and pointing to her throat in the living room Monday.
Wrazen’s daughter Kim Sanchez and grandson Alex Sanchez tried performing the Heimlich maneuver. It didn’t work.
Her other daughter Suzey Carson and son-in-law Gary Carson helplessly watched as Wrazen went unconscious.
Kim Sanchez tried calling 911 to get an ambulance to their Terrace Boulevard home but said she was transferred three times.
So Alex Sanchez, 19, ran out to the street, in hopes of finding someone who could help.
He found a stranger pulling into a driveway five doors down.
The man followed Sanchez back to their home, stuck his fingers down Wrazen’s throat and got some of the kielbasa out, giving her a small passageway to breathe.
It was enough to keep her alive until paramedics arrived.
But as soon as the ambulance got there, the stranger disappeared, and the grateful family had no idea who their mother’s savior was.
“If it wasn’t for that guy, my mom would be dead,” Suzey Carson said.
And the way the family found the man’s identity was almost as unlikely as his heroics.
When Suzey Carson went to work on Wednesday at Tops on the corner of Transit and North French roads, she told her boss the story. A cashier overheard and revealed it was his father who had saved the choking woman’s life.
His name is Chris Odien, and he happened to be visiting a friend when Alex Sanchez came running to him for help.
“I’m really surprised with my reaction,” the 46-year-old Odien said. “I didn’t know what I was doing. I thought for sure she was going to die.”
That’s just further proof of his modesty to Wrazen and her family.
“He saved my life, I can’t thank him enough. I don’t even know who this guy is,” Wrazen said.
The family has called Odien to thank him, and they’ll soon have a more formal introduction where Wrazen will have a chance to meet her savior.
Odien said anyone else in that position would have done the same thing.
“I was in the right place at the right time,” he said.
