‘God had us there for a reason’: Friends save father of 5 with CPR after hit-and-run crash

ASHTABULA COUNTY, Ohio (WOIO/Gray News) - The family of an Ohio man says they are grateful to his friends for helping save his life up to this point.

Seth Rogers, 24, was rushed to a hospital over the weekend after he was reportedly a victim of a hit-and-run crash.

His mother Beverly Burdette said her son remains at the hospital and is fighting for his life after he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

According to the family, a fight broke out at a gentleman’s club last Saturday at about 2 a.m. He was walking through the parking lot to his car when he was hit by someone driving an SUV.

“It was the worst day of my life, it really was,” Burdette said. “He didn’t deserve that.”

They said he was left for dead but thankfully two of his friends came to his rescue.

“I believe God had us there for a reason that night and we both served a purpose,” said Rogers’ friend Stephanie Hall. “We fought for him.”

Stephanie Hall and CJ Calhoun said Rogers is like family to them. They were inside the club when the chaos started.

“I heard three loud bangs when I was inside,” Calhoun said. “I went outside and that’s when I saw multiple people on the ground, so my instinct was to check on everybody.”

Calhoun said everyone was conscious except for Rogers.

“Once I saw Seth wasn’t breathing, I immediately started CPR with no hesitation,” he said. “I started compressions on him for as long as I could.”

Calhoun said he did CPR on Rogers for 11 minutes before Hall took over.

“CJ started performing CPR once I found no pulse,” Hall said. “He got tired, and I started doing CPR and when it wasn’t working, I got on top of him and gave him a good push in the sternum and he finally came back.”

Calhoun said he does not consider himself a hero.

“I feel like I did something that anyone would have done,” he said. “I honestly didn’t want to do this today but I did it because I love the family and also so I can spread CPR awareness.”

The family said Rogers is in a medically induced coma and has a serious brain injury.

“You got a lot of people rooting for him and we hope he can come out of this on top,” said Joey Schmeisser, another friend of Rogers. “Prayers right now is the only thing.”

On Wednesday, the Ashtabula County Sheriff’s Office confirmed an arrest warrant has been issued for 31-year-old Daniel Burch in connection to the incident.

Burch is accused of driving his vehicle into a crowd of people that morning, striking and critically injuring Rogers.

The sheriff’s office said Burch is facing felonious assault and vehicular assault charges, both of which are second-degree felonies.

Copyright 2023 WOIO via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.