Bill Scott spends hours on his ham radio every day. He takes it on walks, vacations, and even social gatherings. Over his 40 years of being an amateur radio operator, he has communicated with people everywhere from South Africa to the Space Station.

This past June, he received a phone call and recognized the voice on the other end. Scott said, “It was all kind of skewed and everything. I thought it was a prank call at first. The voice said, ‘You are an amateur radio operator.’ He said ‘Yeah’ and then it all started coming together.”

His ham radio friend, Skip Kritcher, 500 miles away in Myrtle Point, Oregon dialed Bill’s number by mistake. Scott said Kritcher was on the floor and in need of help. Kirtcher later said, “I couldn’t see the numbers too good on the cell phone and I wound up pushing the button and calling Bill.”

Scott’s wife Sharon, a retired nurse of nearly 60 years, quickly realized Kritcher was having a stroke. She explained, “The speech that he had was slurred and my husband couldn’t seem to keep him on task, and he was confused.”

The line dropped, and that’s when the Scotts called 9-1-1. The couple had been to Kritcher’s house before and knew where to direct first responders to his house. A family member of Kritcher told the Scotts their quick actions saved his life. Sharon Scott said, “The family member said that the EMT told her that he would’ve died within a couple of hours. It was just a miracle that he called the wrong number and he got us and we were able to do something to help him.”

A life was saved by long-distance friendship.