Elderly woman rescued by 14-year-old suburban paperboy

A paperboy in south suburban Momence is being praised for helping to save an elderly woman's life.

She's one of the normal stops on his route, but Monday’s paper delivery was anything but normal.

Pauline Peterson got a visit Thursday afternoon from her paperboy – 14-year-old Anthony Sanfratello. On Monday, he interrupted his paper deliveries to save her life.

“It was just my instinct, because I know when something's bad, I can always trust the police department,” Anthony said.

Anthony, an 8th grader at Momence Junior High School, delivers papers for the Kankakee Daily Journal. He says the 91-year-old meets him at her door every day and invites him in to chat.

“Well, she usually asks me how my day at school was,” Anthony said.

But on Monday afternoon, Anthony delivered his paper to Ms. Peterson and noticed something was wrong.

“I noticed she didn't sound like her usual self and she stopped responding to me, and I’m asking her is she is okay?” Anthony said.

Anthony called 911.

While he did that, Ms. Peterson fell off her chair. Police and paramedics arrived and determined her blood sugar had crashed, causing her to pass out. She spent two days in the hospital.

In her fall, Ms. Peterson suffered a black eye and some broken bones, but doctors tell her she's going to be okay.

“It's a miracle that that paperboy was here on scene and able to call 911, because if he wasn't here and he wasn't able to call 911, I don’t think we would be responding as quickly as we did and the outcome could have been different,” said Wyatt Gustafson of the Riverside EMS System.

Ms. Peterson doesn't recall much from Monday, but she's thrilled her paperboy made a house call.

“It was wonderful. I haven't known him but a few months, but he's wonderful people, boy,” Ms. Peterson said.