What started as a short walk in a Virginia park ended with a hospital stay, a life saved and a friendship that stuck.
Melinda Pereira went into cardiac arrest during a walk at Echo Lake Park in Henrico County, Virginia, in November 2025, according to local outlet WWBT 12. Pereira, 60, who is the director of a local group home, had taken a break from work for what she thought would be a quick walk, but later woke up in hospital.
Doctors told the mother of three, who was days away from her birthday, that she had suffered a serious cardiac episode. They also told her another woman at the park performed CPR and kept her alive until paramedics arrived.
“Apparently, I was not breathing, no pulse, and unconscious, and some guardian angel that started the first steps to life-saving measures is why I’m still here today,” Pereira told WWBT 12 at the time.
“The doctors said if everything wasn’t in alignment, it would’ve been a different outcome,” she continued. “Nobody knows her name, they just said she was a nurse and that she did CPR, and I have the sore ribs to prove it, and that her efforts were vital to my recovery, to my survival.”
According to Women’s World, the good Samaritan was registered nurse Alyssa Leimberger. Leimberger saw the news segment about Pereira that day, and her husband urged her to reach out so they could meet.
The news station connected the two women, who later met at the same park where Pereira collapsed.
“I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you,” Pereira told Leimberger during a joint interview with Women’s World.
Leimberger said she had been walking with a friend that day when she noticed a small crowd forming around Pereira and stepped in to help.
The pair now consider themselves lifelong friends. Leimberger also said she wants their story to push more people to learn CPR.
“Everybody should learn CPR,” she said, per Women’s World. “You never know where or when you’ll be called upon to save a life!”
“It was kind of one of those moments in life where you just kind of see God’s hand in events, and that I definitely believe that I was in the right place at the right time to help somebody that needed help,” Leimberger said while speaking to WWBT shortly after the reunion.
“To know that she was here when she was supposed to be here and meant to be here, I’m just very grateful,” Pereira added.
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