#7 - Joey Grundl
At around 1 pm on September the 27th of 2018, Wisconsin man Dean Hoffmann broke into his
ex-girlfriend’s Grafton residence and attacked her. Upon forcing his way inside the home,
Hoffmann allegedly ripped the 57-year-old woman’s phone away from her and attempted to drag her to
the upstairs bedroom. According to the resulting criminal complaint, the man shoved the victim
onto the floor, then pulled her hair, ripped her shirt, and continued dragging her up the steps.
In an attempt to escape, the homeowner reportedly struck Hoffmann in the groin,
to which he responded by punching her in the face, giving her a black eye and a bloody nose. It was
later detailed how Hoffmann subsequently forced the woman upstairs and bound her hands and feet
to the bed with a vacuum power cord, then shoved a towel in her mouth to ensure “nobody would be
able to hear her”. The man kept her locked inside her own house for the next several hours, but,
eventually, decided to order food from Domino’s Pizza, a choice that unwittingly precipitated the
victim’s eventual escape. When the Domino’s delivery driver, identified as Joel Grundl,
arrived at the house, he noticed the woman’s black eye and reportedly saw her mouth the words
“help me”. He promptly dialed 9-1-1, and local police were dispatched to the scene
to investigate his claims. Hoffmann was later arrested without incident,
and he consequently faced charges of kidnapping, false imprisonment, strangulation and suffocation,
felony intimidation of a victim, and burglary of a building. The authorities
credited Grundl’s proactive quick-thinking with potentially saving the victim’s life.
#6 - Rachel Green
In May of 2022, doorbell camera footage surfaced online in which a woman from Kent,
England was shown saving her pet dog after it fell out of a second-story window. The woman,
later identified as Rachel Green, had been conversing with a window fitter in her driveway
when she suddenly looked up to find that her 6-year-old Border Collie, Florence, had somehow
opened the window in the upstairs bathroom and was mere moments from falling to the pavement below.
Green swiftly jumped into action and positioned herself on the ground to catch her dog
in the event that it took the nearly 20-foot fall, which it ultimately did. However, because of the
homeowner’s quick-thinking, she was able to catch Florence in her arms before she hit the ground.
Green later told The Daily Mail that the animal was entirely unharmed during the incident,
the video footage of which went viral after being posted to social media.
#5 - The Falkenburg Road Jail Attack
On February the 28th of 2017, CCTV cameras at the Falkenburg Road Jail in Tampa,
Florida captured a brutal, unprovoked attack on a corrections officer, identified only as Deputy
D. Hernandez. As was shown in the viral recording of the incident, an inmate, named as Kiondre
Zachary, approached the guard from behind and wrapped a towel around his neck in an apparent
attempt to strangle him. The prisoner dug his knee into 31-year-old Hernandez’s back to keep
him restrained, but the guard ultimately managed to contort his body out of the stranglehold.
Following Zachary’s initial assault, some of the 72 other inmates in the room at the time
quickly sprung into action to help the deputy. Hernandez, with the help of several prisoners,
was eventually able to subdue 22-year-old Zachary until additional guards arrived on the scene. The
assailant, who was reportedly serving prison time in connection to a burglary conviction,
was further charged with aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer and consequently moved to
an isolation cell. According to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, Hernandez suffered a
twisted ankle, bruised knee, and abrasions to his neck in the attack. Officials indicated that,
had the other inmates chosen not to help the officer, his injuries could have been “far worse”.
#4 - Sophia Furtado
Upon returning to their West Island residence after a gathering with friends in February of
2022, Massachusetts woman Caryn Hebert Sullivan and her husband placed an order for pizza from
the regional restaurant chain Papa Gino's. Sullivan’s partner fell asleep while they
were waiting for the food, so she was the one who went outside to meet the delivery driver,
identified as 26-year-old Sophia Furtado, when she arrived. Furtado, who worked for
the online food ordering company DoorDash, came upon Sullivan lying unconscious on the ground
outside her home with blood dripping from her head. She immediately sprung into action,
running into the house to alert the woman’s husband before dialing 9-1-1. It later emerged
that Furtado, a New Bedford resident, had wanted to be an EMT before having children caused her to
take a different career path. Nevertheless, she used the medical knowledge she’d gained in school
to properly care for Sullivan while awaiting the arrival of emergency responders. The delivery
driver used blankets and towels taken from inside the house to hold the injured woman’s head and
neck in place, which she later indicated was meant to prevent any further damage to her cervical
spine that might eventually lead to paralysis. Although Sullivan was subsequently hospitalized
for 3 weeks with a traumatic brain injury, she ultimately survived the ordeal, largely because
of Furtado’s quick-thinking actions before the arrival of the EMTs. In the wake of the incident,
the young woman was given an honorary plaque from the Fairhaven Police Department,
a pin from Sullivan and her family, and a $1,000 scholarship from DoorDash,
which was intended to help pay for her to go to medical school at some point in the future.
#3 - Brock Meister and Ryan Topper
After having dinner with friends on the night of January the 12th of 2018, Indiana resident Brock
Meister set out for Lake of the Woods, south of Bremen, to stay overnight at his grandparents’
house. The 22-year-old was sitting in the passenger’s seat of his friend’s vehicle when they
suddenly drove over a patch of ice on the road. Due to the consequent loss of traction, the back
of the car swung out and struck a ditch, causing the entire vehicle to tip over and roll onto the
passenger side. Meister was then thrust sideways and his head violently struck the window, which
shattered. The vehicle flipped upright again, and Meister’s friend, Ryan Topper, who was driving in
a separate vehicle ahead of them, rushed to help. Having recently taken a CPR-training course,
Topper knew that moving Meister, who was unresponsive and covered in blood,
would be potentially harmful to his condition. He instead cradled his injured friend’s head
and awaited the arrival of emergency responders. It subsequently emerged that the crash had caused
Meister to suffer an internal decapitation, also known as atlanto-occipital dislocation,
which has been shown by research to be fatal roughly 70% of the time. However, the young
man ultimately survived the ordeal, in part due to Topper’s quick-thinking heroics. Six months later,
after Meister had undergone an intensive hospital recovery process, his younger brother, Collin,
was involved in a fiery jet ski accident at their family’s lake house. Collin was thrown into the
water after the craft abruptly exploded while he was attempting to turn it on. Meister immediately
jumped into the water to help him, emulating the life-saving measures Topper had taken to rescue
him only months earlier. Collin ultimately came away with a torn ACL and broken bones
in his back and foot, but was otherwise fine, largely due to his brother’s gallant efforts.
#2 - Jorel Puryear
During a trip to Mexico to celebrate his 40th birthday, Virginia man Jorel Puryear encountered
a man who’d become unconscious while cliff-diving in Tulum. As was detailed in subsequent reports,
other people nearby had pulled the unresponsive individual out of the water when Puryear and his
friends got to the scene, at which point his face had taken on a bluish-purple color. The victim’s
wife and 5-year-old daughter were standing by his side, watching in helpless horror. Fortunately,
Puryear was a family care provider with enCircle, where he worked with people who had disabilities.
As part of his medical training, he’d been given a CPR certification, but up until that point,
he hadn’t performed the emergency procedure out in the field. Despite his relative inexperience,
he was able to successfully resuscitate the man back to consciousness.
#1 - Andrea Fuentes
American synchronized swimmer Anita Alvarez lost consciousness while competing in the
World Aquatics Championships in Budapest, Hungary on June the 22nd of 2022. The
25-year-old professional athlete was taking part in the final round of the women’s
solo free event when she suddenly fainted and began sinking to the bottom of the pool.
Speaking about the incident in a subsequent radio interview, Alvarez’s coach, Andrea Fuentes,
described how she’d realized something was wrong when the swimmer “went down and didn’t react”
rather than swim to the surface after performing her routine. Fuentes revealed that she tried to
get the attention of the pool’s lifeguards to alert them to the situation, but they didn’t see
her. She thus took matters into her own hands and leapt into the water to rescue Alvarez herself.
Upon reaching the unconscious young woman, Fuentes wrapped her arms around her and pulled her to the
surface with the help of a male lifeguard who’d jumped in after she did. Alvarez reportedly wasn’t
breathing when she was extracted from the pool, but medical personnel at the scene were able to
revive her and stabilize her condition. It was determined that the swimmer hadn’t sustained
any internal damage while she was submerged in the pool. Subsequent reports indicated that it
was actually the second time Fuentes had saved Alvarez after she’d fainted during a competition,
as she’d lost consciousness during the Olympics qualifying event in Barcelona the previous year.
Thanks for watching! Would you rather have the ability to stop time around you
for 10 seconds each day or be able to change 1 event from your past
every year? Let us know in the comments section below!