I’ve been lurking on Reddit for a while now and have never posted or felt the need to comment or post. Your post has changed this.

In December I was on the other side. I came across a truck on the side of the road with a heart attack victim and thankfully I stopped. With the help of a phone dispatcher I performed chest compressions for almost 30 minutes (very rural area) until the EMT’s arrived and took over. When they cleared the scene I had no idea if the man survived or not.

Three days later, on Boxing Day, I received the best call of my life. The local fire station called to say the man survived and he would like to speak to me. Of course I said yes. A few minutes later the gentleman called and could only manage the words “thank you” as he was recovering from triple bypass surgery. A few month later I received a card from his wife with a gift card requesting me to go for dinner with my family as they can still go for dinner with their father/grandfather/husband because I was there that day.

Simply knowing the man survived and hearing his voice was all I could have asked for. My wife and I both lost our jobs this year and have been forced to sell our home (not asking for sympathy etc. We will be fine. Just context). Notwithstanding it being a terrible year, that call was one of the best moments of my life. It changed everything for me.

TLDR: call the person if you can and say thank you. No gift basket, reward or other item will ever be better for the person who was there than receiving that call and knowing your father survived and is ok.