CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- “My husband may not have been sitting here today if someone else had gotten that call,” said Patricia Dykes.

Patricia Dykes husband, Willie, had just come home from work last month when he started acting a little unusual.

• Willie Dykes was in cardiac arrest when his wife called 911.
• Dykes was essentially dead when a paramedic brought him back to life.
• Patricia Dykes contacted Spectrum News to get in contact with them man who saved her husband's life. 

“He was just slumped over on the couch. He didn't move. He didn't say anything and so I was like honey, 'Why are you playing? What are you doing? You keep playing, I'm going to call the cops on you,'” Dykes said.

She didn't need police. He needed medical care because Dykes was in cardiac arrest.

“He essentially was dead,” said MEDIC paramedic Donald Eslick.

Eslick was the man who helped bring him back to life. He used a defibrillator as other first responders performed CPR.

“He just continued to work on him, work on him... and he brought him back,” Dykes said.

One of the problems of being a paramedic is that they often don't know where their patient ends up after they leave them at a hospital. This time it was a different story.

When she found out her husband was going to be okay, Patricia got in touch with Spectrum News so the Dykes could officially meet their savior.

“In my career, I've probably run upwards of 3,000 calls,” Eslick said. “It's nice to have encounters like this where you get to see the hands on impact you have on the community.”

Willie doesn't remember much from that night, but he knows without Eslick he wouldn't be here.

“I think about the thousands of people that go unnoticed for the work that they do,” Willie Dykes said. “Sometimes we take it for granted that it's not that big, but it's huge.”

There were a lot of brave acts that night -- from the driver of the ambulance to Patricia who performed CPR on her husband as the 911 operator talked her through it.

The job of a paramedic is to save lives but until it happens to you it's hard to appreciate the impact.

It's why on this day, Donald Eslick was not just doing his job he was an Everyday Hero.

If you have an idea for Spectrum News' next Everyday Hero, please email us at everydayheroes@charter.com