Man Rescued By MBTA Workers Has New Mission In Life

BOSTON (CBS) - Kevin Bossart and his friend Rachel Dobinski were having a relaxed lunch near Fenway Thursday, but six weeks ago, the scene was farfetched. At the Wollaston T stop in Quincy, Kevin's heart gave out.

"I think I reached my right arm for the railing and at that point I was unconscious and I just fell back and hit my head," Bossart says.

The T has 550 front-line employees who are CPR certified. Tomas Gonzalez and Karen Kane are two of them. They were all over Kevin Bossart that day, from the minute he dropped.

"There was very shallow breathing, more like gasping," Gonzalez says. "I started CPR and worked on him for approximately 10 maybe 15 minutes before Quincy Fire arrived."

"This kid it just wasn't his time to go," Kane says. "He had a lot of people in his corner."

EMTs quickly got Kevin to the hospital and now he's back on his feet but staggering under the weight of medical bills. Still, his goal these days is to advocate for more CPR training in the public workplace.

Rachel is starting a fund-raising campaign and will run the marathon for her best friend. "I think that the Boston Marathon allows people to do really special things, running for a cause and when that happened to Kevin I just figured why not put the two together," she says.

Rachel has organized a fundraiser at the Cask 'n Flagon March 29 to raise money for Kevin's recovery and the people who have helped him.

MORE LOCAL NEWS FROM CBS BOSTON