WILKES COUNTY, N.C. — A heartfelt reunion in Wilkes County.
A gunshot victim met the first responders who saved his life almost a year ago.
July 13, 2023, was when Michael Smith said he was sitting at a park when, all of a sudden, he was shot in the leg.
"I actually met with my ex at the park, and that's the last thing I remember," said Michael Smith.
How Michael Smith survived is nothing short of a miracle.
Each event, like a link, plays a crucial role in forming what's now a strong love and respect for first responders.
Smith said after he was shot, he jumped in his truck and rushed off to a hospital. He didn't make it far.
Instead, he ended up in Bruce Byrd's front yard. Byrd is a volunteer for the Ronda Fire Department and has been a medic and first responder for more than 30 years.
Thankfully, he was home at the right time.
"I heard a screech in front of our house; I got up and looked out my bedroom window and saw a pickup in my yard," said Byrd.
Byrd said he looked in the truck, found Smith unconscious, ran into the house to get his medical bag, used his radio to call for help, and then began CPR.
"There were several minutes that we didn't have a pulse until the supervisor Jim got there, and we initiated the blood to get a pulse back," said Byrd.
Wilkes County EMS Assistant Supervisor Jim Bottomley said Wilkes County brings donated blood to incidents involving traumatic injuries.
It was Bottomley's persistence to give Smith a blood transfusion.
"I made the comment out loud, I said, 'I am going to give this guy blood, we're going to bring him home,' and I got some crazy looks that morning but I knew, I knew that he had a good chance that we could get him," said Bottomley.
The EMS Medical Director, Lance Henninger, said responders are giving blood to patients at least one to two times a month.
"By being able to get that blood to the person an hour ahead of time that they wouldn't get until they got to the major hospital, it has prevented many deaths," said Henninger.
The transfusion allowed the Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist's Air Care Team to fly Smith to the hospital, get him into the emergency room, and into surgery immediately.
It makes this day, full of reunion between first responders and Smith, incredible to witness.
"It was really neat to see him upright, that day I wouldn't have thought I'd be able to talk to him today, so to be able to have a conversation with him, shake his hand, it was a really humbling experience. The training we do, the work we put into it really does pay off," said Brady White, an Air Care Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Flight Nurse Paramedic.
It's all thanks to the chain of events and highly skilled people stepping in to help.
"I am just glad to be awake and be alive because if it weren't for these guys, I wouldn't be alive," said Smith.
Smith's mother said it is the biggest blessing knowing her son is still alive.
"We are very thankful for everybody that was there and most of all that they were carrying blood because if they weren't, he wouldn't be here," said Smith's mother. "If it would have happened where we live now, he wouldn't have made it."
His sister said she's also thankful for the life-saving efforts.
"Whenever we were able to take him home, that was really when I could breathe again," Smith's sister said. "It was scary, but it just brought us closer."