Scout troop to honor teacher for saving driver's life

A Johnson County teacher was driving with her daughter when she saw another driver in danger.

Katie Boyanton immediately stopped, got out and used her CPR training to save that stranger. She credits that training for keeping him alive.

The heroic rescue also got the attention of a local Cub Scouts troop who plans to honor her on Tuesday.

Boyanton says she was driving along County Road 528 in Mansfield with her 10-year-old daughter. And it was her daughter who noticed a truck crashed into the creek beneath a bridge. She says all she could think of was she hoped she could help.

Boyanton says she wasn't the first driver to stop and try to help Matt Goetz, whose truck went over a bridge back in July. But she was the only one there who knew CPR.

"He was under the truck. Right before I grabbed his hand, I said ‘I'm scared.’ And the gentleman behind me holding my hand said, ‘I know.’ And I grabbed his hand, thinking he was going to grab it back, and there was nothing. So when I pulled him out, he was blue. He was not breathing. He was not conscious,” she recalled. “As I was doing that, I was just crying out for the Lord. ‘Jesus, please don't take him. Don't take him. It's not time.’ I stopped and felt for a pulse again. And as I laid my hand on his chest, his heart started beating, and I remember looking up. All the people were standing on the bridge, and I screamed, ‘He's got a heartbeat!’ And they just said keep doing what you're doing until the paramedics can get down there."

Boyanton’s friend is Boy Scout leader Kevin Dazey, He was so moved by her courage that his Scouts will present her with an award Tuesday night in a special ceremony.

"I hope that they remember — not so much the crowds and the attention — but they remember, ‘Hey I really got to meet a real hero. And not only that but Cub Scouting is teaching me to become that kind of hero,” Dazey said.

"By the grace of God, He laid his hand on both of us I think,” Boyanton said.

Goetz believes Boyanton’s knowledge of CPR gave him a second chance. She hopes her story will help others learn CPR.