Good Samaritan Who Helped Save Canton Overdose Victims Comes Forward

CANTON, GA -- Crystal VanAlstyne was traveling from Jasper to Marietta on June 26 when, following the rules of the road, she moved over one lane upon seeing a Canton patrol vehicle stopped with its emergency lights activated on Interstate 575. It wasn't until after passing the commotion when she realized the officer was frantically trying to save the life of a person lying in the grass.

VanAlstyne told Patch she saw the officer performing CPR on the person off the side of the road and made a split-second decision to stop her truck to help the cop. She pulled over, jumped out of her vehicle and ran to the scene.

"I told him I was on my way," she said, as she was running up to the officer. “I am here to help.”

That decision turned out to be a good one, as VanAlstyne provided critical assistance to the save the lives of two people suffering from an apparent drug overdose. Canton officer Danny Mendoza was patrolling the southbound side of I-575 near Exit 19 around 9:08 p.m. when he noticed a pickup truck with its hazard lights activated.

Mendoza pulled over to see if he could assist and found the passenger door open, with a man unconscious on the ground and a woman unresponsive in the passenger seat, the Canton Police Department said. Mendoza recognized the two were suffering from a drug overdose and began to perform CPR on the woman as VanAlstyne arrived on the scene.

“What do you need me to do to help you?," she recalled asking. The officer asked her to keep the male talking, so she cleared his airway, rubbed his chest, stretched out his legs and took his pulse. The man was barely breathing and his eyes were glazed over, she added.

The man and woman survived the overdose with help of Narcan -- a drug used to reverse an opioid overdose -- and the teamwork of VanAlstyne, officer Mendoza, Corporal Tiffany Cromer and Cherokee sheriff's deputies David Barone and Joe Testa. Mendoza and the other officers will be recognized with the agency's Life Saving Award at a future Canton City Council meeting.

The instinct to pull over and assist the Canton cop with the two overdose patients, VanAlstyne said, was something that hits close to home. In March, her husband, Ronald VanAlstyne was riding his motorcycle when he was struck by a driver who failed to stop at a stop sign.

At the time of the collision, motorists stopped and assisted her husband. Unfortunately, his injuries were too great and he passed away days later. Her husband, she added, would have celebrated 14 years of sobriety in October.

“He was all about helping people," she said. "When he had his accident there were good Samaritans who helped him.”

Since her husband's passing, VanAlstyne said she has a core group of friends and family members who've rallied around her to provide her the support she needs to get through each day. Upon seeing the news that she assisted the Canton officer in saving the overdose victims, those same group of friends encouraged her to come out and share her story.

Now that the incident has come and gone, VanAlstyne said she hopes others realize there are people out there who can and will help when one is facing his or her's darkest hour. She also said she hopes the man and woman who survived the overdose won't take this second opportunity at life for granted.

“This is a second chance for those people," she added.

Image via Canton Police Department