From Hidden Brain Media, I'm Shankar Vedantam.

This is My Unsung Hero, stories where one person reached out to help another in a time of need.

I don't know the name of my Unsung Hero.

And here she was trying to encourage me that it was going to be all right.

Thank you. You will forever be my unsung hero.

Today's story comes from Mike Huddleston.

In February 2000, Mike flew from Maryland to San Francisco.

He needed to get to a rental car agency.

But because of a degenerative condition that weakens his muscles,

he wouldn't be able to climb the stairs of the shuttle bus.

Instead, the car agency sent someone to pick him up.

But as he was walking outside to meet them, he fell.

And due to his condition, he couldn't get up.

So I remember looking around trying to imagine how I was going to be able to get up.

I needed to push off of something, a bench, a chair, or something like that would have been easy.

The curb was there, but there's traffic and didn't think that was going to be really safe.

So I remember sitting there on my butt,

in the middle of the sidewalk in front of San Francisco airport,

thinking what in the world am I going to do?

Out of nowhere, all of a sudden I hear in my left ear,

what can I do to help?

I turned around and looked and there was a guy there maybe 35 or 40 years old um and i said are you kidding he said no what can i do

...