In the right place at the right time, how a fourth grader became an unlikely hero

September 14, the Wilson Lakemen visited the Akron Tigers for a Friday night football showdown under the lights. Towards the end of the second quarter type 1 diabetic, Benjamin Mahar, a sophomore at Wilson, lost his omnipod-pump mid play, a device that regulates his blood-sugar levels that's normally attached to his body. 

"I told myself okay after this drive is over I’ll come to the sideline and check my blood, and my blood was so high that the meter literally read the word high," Mahar said. “I feel trembly when I’m low, I don’t feel like I’m at full strength and I can’t think thoroughly... And then I checked my bag and realized we didn't have any [insulin] with us.” 

More than 45 minutes away from their house in Wilson, Mahar says his family had to options, rush to a nearby hospital or all the way home. That was until an unlikely hero came to the rescue on the opposing sideline. 

“I remember them hearing it on the speaker, 'Go to the other side because someone needs insulin,'" Fourth grader, Matthew Wood, said. Wood attends Akron elementary and was in the stands, rooting on his older brother, when he heard from the press box that a player on the other team needed insulin.

Both Mahar and Wood are type 1 diabetics and wear the same omnipod. Wood says he ran around the end zone to Wilson's side and gave Mahar his spare insulin pump, by the end of halftime Mahar was able to retake the field. 

“I couldn’t imagine what I would have done had he not known what to do," Mahar said.

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