Editor’s note: During the holiday season, the Fort Worth Report is following up on the stories you told us you appreciated the most in 2025.
Gary Anthon still hasn’t found the two strangers who saved his life nearly two years ago.
But earlier this month, he and his wife got to meet and break bread with the four first responders who continued the life-saving efforts.
In January 2024, Gary Anthon’s heart stopped at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. Two passerbys saved his life by administering CPR, and the Salt Lake City native has worked since then to find and thank them for helping him.
Both Gary and his wife, Stacey Anthon, were in town this month visiting friends in Grapevine and wanted to thank the emergency responders at DFW Station 5 before taking a flight back home.
He bought them all lunch — tacos, chips and iced tea — and gave them a photo album of things he’s been able to do since his heart was jump-started at the airport.
See his son get married.
Meet two new grandchildren.
Gary Anthon flips through a photo book on Dec. 8, 2025. Anthon created a book filled with memories he was able to create thanks to having his life saved by the DFW Airport EMS team. (Maria Crane | Fort Worth Report/CatchLight Local/Report for America)
“I know what it meant to have these guys save me and be able to experience the rest of my life,” Anthon said. “The things I would have missed just last year were incredible, and now I get to move on with my life and think about just how much of a gift every day is.”
That recent Monday morning was not the first time he met the EMS crew. He greeted them at the hospital the day of his resuscitation.
And although his efforts remain focused on finding his two initial saviors, Anthon said seeing the EMS team again was on his bucket list. They were extremely important to his survival, he notes.
“I was still in rough shape when the paramedics got here,” Gary Anthon said. “They had to shock me again and the heartbeat was bad, and they had to do a lot of life-saving measures to keep me alive.”
Gary Anthon signs a cardiac arrest survivors plaque on seat 14C in DFW Airport on Dec. 8, 2025. (Ismael M. Belkoura | Fort Worth Report)
During his recent visit, the Salt Lake City resident signed a poster of a plane commemorating those who have survived a cardiac arrest event at the airport.
The DFW Airport Department of Public Safety Headquarters started placing names on its cardiac arrest survivors board in 2022. The program was started by Hilton Head Battalion Chief Tom Bouthillet, who looked to fill the symbolic plane on the poster with the names of cardiac arrest survivors by 2032.
Bouthillet co-founded Six Minutes to Live, an organization whose mission is to prevent cardiac arrest deaths. The nonprofit worked with Anthon to try and find the men who administered CPR in those first crucial moments.
Anthon is one of the few cardiac arrest survivors to sign the board in person, as many who pass through DFW Airport don’t live in North Texas.
So far, the airport’s efforts have saved enough travelers to fill nearly a third of the 150 seats on the plane.
In January 2024, Gary Anthon’s heart stopped at DFW Airport. On Dec. 8, 2025, he was able to thank the EMS personnel who helped save his life. (Maria Crane | Fort Worth Report/CatchLight Local/Report for America)
Meanwhile, Anthon’s search for his unknown saviors continues. If you have information concerning the bystanders who helped him, contact Six Minutes to Live here.
Ismael M. Belkoura is the health reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at ismael.belkoura@fortworthreport.org.
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