BANGOR, Maine (WABI) – One person got a second chance at life thanks to the heroic act of a Good Samaritan in Bangor on Tuesday.

“You could see him,” Nate Correa explained. “You could see his body.”

Correa was walking through Coe Park in Bangor on Tuesday when he saw someone slumped on the floor in the public restroom.

“When I got here, his head was right there, so I yelled at him and tried to get his attention. I thought he was sleeping,” Correa said.

But Correa soon realized that there was more going on.

“There were all kinds of drugs here,” he said, pointing to the counter next to the toilet.

He said he broke the door lock and found the man suffering from a drug overdose.

“I put his head back and treated him with Narcan,” Correa said.

But the man stopped breathing and turned blue.

“‘Don’t die. Don’t die on me. Come on,'” Correa said he told the man. “So, I’m just yelling at him, just yelling at him to concentrate, breathe, breathe.”

Correa said he tried to flag down help, but no one stopped. He called 9-1-1 and emergency responders were on the scene within minutes.

He says the man eventually came to, but the incident left Correa shaken.

“The people driving by, slowing down and watching – that blew my mind, you know? I mean, because it makes me feel like, what if it was me? I mean, you guys would just let me die?” Correa said.

Correa now lives in a Fresh Start Sober Living home after experiencing addiction himself.

“I fell and someone saved me. That’s why when I came in and turned her over, all I could see was my face,” he said. “And I was like, holy (expletive). So, that’s what I looked like? That’s scary as hell, you know what I mean, seeing someone stop breathing.”

He says that disposing of sharp objects in and around public toilets but not offering naloxone sends the wrong message to anyone tempted to take drugs there.

Luckily, Correa always carries Narcan with him.

“I think everyone should get a second chance. I mean, most of us are great people. Most of us have kids, most of us have parents and most of us have families,” Correa said. “I guarantee you that 90% or even 100% of people who are high want to quit. They want to quit, but it’s just not possible. You know what I mean? Once it has a hold on you, it’s hard to let go.”

Correa says the man he helped on Tuesday thanked him, but he hopes to continue to maintain contact to show him and others that help is there and recovery is possible.

“Listen, if you contact any of us, we will make sure something happens. And yes, I am not judging you at all,” he said.

In the state of Maine there is a law to protect Good Samaritans.

It protects a person from arrest or prosecution for most nonviolent crimes, including all drug offenses, if they call for help at the scene of an overdose. This applies to people who are seeking help for others or experiencing an overdose themselves.

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