One Year Later: Matt Reis makes his greatest save

For those who know the name John Odom, you know what he went through, how close he came to death and the story of the heroic man who saved his life.

But if you have not heard this story, I summarize it by saying that once again, in that sole moment there was exhibited that nearly impulsive instance where when the worst of humanity strikes the best of it emerges. 

John Odom was a man just weeks away from his official retirement. He was 63 and father and law to famous New England Revolution goaltender Matt Reis and was in Boston to watch his biological daughter and wife to Reis, Nicole, experience the realization of her dream to run the fabled Boston Marathon. Her family, both legal and biological were intent on supporting her in her athletic triumph.

But as reported by the Boston Globe back in July, an eerie series of events surrounding watching that race and the grizzly happenings that would interrupt it were discretely responsible for the saving of Odom’s life.

As all of Nicole’s cheering squad members made their way to their spot to cheer at the 13 mile mark, they realized they had forgotten their encouraging signs back home and so they were forced to go back there before settling down and waiting for Nicole to reach their cheering point. There they retrieved a sign and Reis remembered that he had forgotten to put on a belt that morning. He remedied that and then left with the family.

Knowing that Nicole had already passed the 13 mile mark originally marked as a viewing point, the family moved to the highly populated finish line where they arrived mere minutes before the first of two bombs went off.

“It was perfect weather for the runners,” said John Odom. “It was a wonderful feeling being there, seeing all the runners coming in, everyone cheering."

According to his account, Reis took his small daughter up on his shoulders and moved a few feet away from Odom. That move very well might have saved their daughter’s life.

As they waited for Nicole, the bomb suddenly went off knocking both of the Odom parents to the ground and brutally injuring John. According to Reis’ descriptions, he and John’s wife Karen immediately jumped into action tying Reis’ belt tight around Odom’s leg as they worked to keep the damage caused by a 4 inch slice of metal from killing John. Odom “turned grey” and solicited panicked screams on the part of Reis and Karen for their patient to stay awake.

Long story short, he did and though John Odom received enough blood transfusions to equal the amount of blood in the bodies of 2 people, a series of 11 surgeries and 2 and a half weeks of life in a medically induced coma helped save John Odom. And yet we know, the doctors who saved John and the entire soccer world knows that none of that would have been possible without those seconds of cool headedness and heroic knowledge of human health and emergency care exhibited by Matt Reis.