An ambulance vehicle in Bratislava. (source: SME)
Ján Novák (not his real name) was walking along the Danube with his sister on a warm April evening when his heart suddenly stopped.
The 40-year-old collapsed near the River Park office and hotel complex in central Bratislava, not far from the Moja Samoška supermarket. He had gone into cardiac arrest.
Quick-thinking passersby rushed to his aid, performing CPR until paramedics arrived and used a defibrillator to restart his heart. After spending two weeks in hospital, Novák is now recovering at home – and looking to thank the strangers who saved his life.
“I had a cardiac arrest and passed out around 21:15,” he wrote in a post on Reddit, where he is trying to track down his rescuers. “There were people nearby who started giving me first aid and continued until the ambulance arrived. Then the attempts continued in the ambulance and at the hospital.”
Novák, who has no history of heart problems, says he owes his survival to the calm and skill of the people who responded. “They saved my children’s father. My wife’s husband,” he wrote. “Thanks to them, my story didn’t end.”
So far, one of the people who helped has come forward – a medical student and volunteer paramedic who identified herself only by the username Bežkyňa, which means “runner” in Slovak.
“I asked the lady who was giving you CPR if she needed to switch, and I continued after her until the ambulance arrived,” she wrote in reply to Novák’s post. At the time, she did not know he had survived. “I only learned it had a happy ending when I saw coverage of the Reddit post.”
Bežkyňa has turned down Novák’s offer of dinner. “Your willingness to repay is nice, but honestly, if there’s anyone to thank, it’s the paramedics,” she wrote. “Seeing their professionalism, endurance and strength was truly admirable.”
Speaking to The Slovak Spectator, Novák said he still hopes to find the paramedics and others who helped him. “If the lady who gave me CPR reconsidered, my wife and I would love to invite her and her boyfriend to dinner,” he said.
The near-death experience has inspired Novák to refresh his first aid training. “I need to be ready to help someone else when needed,” he said.
Those looking to do the same can take part in Slovak Red Cross first aid courses, which run from eight to 33 hours and include AED (automated external defibrillator) training. The national Emergency Medical Service Operations Centre maintains a public map of defibrillators available across Slovakia, though they should only be used by trained individuals.
In May 2025, Ľudovít Lang, Andrea Verdun and Adriana Klačanová – emergency call operators and dispatchers from the Bratislava Regional Operations Centre – received the National Emergency Medical Service Award for saving the life of an unconscious man on Obchodná Street in Bratislava last year. Lang accepted the award on behalf of his colleagues. (source: OS ZZS SR)
The centre also this month gave its National Emergency Medical Service Award to a team of paramedics and dispatchers who saved a man’s life on Obchodná Street in Bratislava in June 2024. The award honours individuals and teams for outstanding contributions to saving lives.
