KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Two weeks after a stranger saved his life at a store in the Legends Outlets, Steven Duke experienced a special moment on Friday when he thanked the nurse who revived him after a cardiac event.
The emergency occurred inside the Kate Spade store at the shopping center on Labor Day.
On Friday, Duke described to 41 Action News the moment he knew something was wrong.
“I just kind of started feeling dizzy a little bit with flashes of black in my vision,” he said. “The greeter talked about a purse real quick and that’s about the last thing I remember.”
Duke awoke hours later inside a hospital.
With his heart beating once again, he found out about how a stranger stepped in during a moment of true panic for his wife and child inside the store.
“A young lady came up and did CPR on me and basically revived me and brought me back,” Duke said. “If I was alone, we’re not going to be having this conversation because I would be gone.”
Despite finding her on Facebook after the incident and exchanging an email, Duke wanted to properly thank the woman who saved his life.
On Friday, the opportunity came.
During a special moment captured by 41 Action News, Duke saw the woman for the first time ever during a FaceTime phone call.
“I just wanted to thank you so much for basically saving my life,” he said, smiling into the camera. “You gave me a second chance.”
The stranger on the other line was Aimee Boriboun, a nurse and pharmacist who lives in Wichita.
After traveling through the metro and shopping at the Legends Outlets, she said she did what she had to do during the emergency.
“It was just a reaction,” she said. “If someone needs help, you need to be there. That’s human nature.”
Boriboun and Duke hoped to meet together for a dinner with their families sometime in the future.
With Duke now back to work after receiving treatment, he said he appreciates his life even more after Boriboun helped save it.
“You don’t know how many lives you affect down the road by doing something like that,” he said. “She saved my life. Maybe I’ll save a couple more.”
