SALISBURY, Mass. — Chelsea French doesn’t usually take Route 110 on her way home to Salisbury, Massachusetts from her job as a respiratory therapist at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. But Michael Beaton is glad she did on the morning of July 9, when he was in cardiac arrest and in need of help.

Beaton called an area newspaper, The Daily News of Newburyport, on Monday to share the tale of his nearly miraculous rescue by an unknown bystander and Salisbury firefighter/EMTs Dave Doyle and Matt Swenson. His story was printed yesterday, which was the way he learned that the unknown bystander was French, a 26-year-old Salisbury resident.

“I was hoping I’d find out who she is through the newspaper story about what happened,” Beaton said yesterday. “We spoke for a half-hour this morning. She’s awesome. This is just such a crazy story.”

Beaton, 45, is a Merrimac, Massachusetts resident and was on his way east on Route 110 early July 9 on a job for the Newburyport, Massachusetts landscaping business he’s owned for the past 15 years. Not long after 8 a.m., he told the two workers with him that he didn’t feel well, then slumped unconscious over the steering wheel of his truck.

Able to pull the car over in front of a local establishment, his employees got him out of the truck and stretched out on the roadside. They called 911 and were preparing to start CPR when French — whom Beaton calls his “guardian angel” and mistook for a nurse — stopped her car and ran over.

‘There was no question I’d help’

“When I got to him, he had no pulse and he wasn’t breathing,” French said yesterday. “There was no question of my helping. I just immediately started CPR.”

French continued until emergency responders got to the scene to take action. Asking if they were “all set,” she turned and left. 

Doyle said French’s actions kept blood flowing through Beaton’s body and brain until they could arrive with the defibrillator to get his heart beating again. Her actions were vital, he said, and the outcome could have been worse without her. Both he and Swenson were sorry they hadn’t gotten her name.  

But after reading the story in the newspaper, several of French’s friends gave her a call and one called The Daily News. French made contact with the Salisbury Fire Department to introduce herself. The firefighters immediately called Beaton so the two could connect.

“I had been trying to find out what happened to him,” she said. “I was even checking the newspapers for obituaries because when I saw him last, he wasn’t looking very good.”

He might not have looked good while she was pumping his chest doing CPR, but he did look familiar. When they spoke yesterday, they realized they’d met previously.

Beaton said French, an area class of 2007 high school graduate, was the receptionist at the physical therapist’s office he visited after shoulder surgery. 

“We met before. Can you believe it?” he said. “This story is so bizarre.” 

“This whole thing is really incredible,” French said. “I really never take 110 home; I always get off the highway and drive through Newburyport. I don’t know why I went the other way that morning. I am glad I did.”