A gut feeling on a country road in Illinois ended up saving a stranger’s life.
Sixteen-year-old Randy Gerlach was driving to work in Morrison, Illinois, when he saw a vehicle sitting in a ditch.
At first, he was not sure what had happened.
“I wasn’t sure if something actually happened or if [the driver] just kind of accidentally went too far on the shoulder and just went in,” Gerlach recalled.
He kept driving into town, then decided to turn around and check.
“I turned around in town because I figured by then, if it was an accident and they didn’t mean to, they would’ve been gone by then, and they weren’t.”
When Gerlach got to the car, he found an unconscious woman behind the wheel.
He called 911, and emergency responders took the woman to hospital.
Doctors later told Gerlach that if he had arrived 20 minutes later, the woman likely would not have survived.
Gerlach said he does not see himself as a hero.
“Just right place at the right time, and I actually did the right thing and didn’t just keep going,” he said.
He had a simple message for others.
“Go with your gut.”
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