Bangor - For the past three months, Jody Mackin has been delivering the Bangor Daily News to customers along Union Street.

"You're at this house six days a week, yeah you know pretty much what's going on," he said.

But one Tuesday morning a few weeks ago, his gut feeling told him something was off when he approached the home of 76-year-old Jerome Mishou.

"My first thought was somebody had robbed him or stole his vehicle, that was my first thought that first day, but then I thought, well don't think that way he may have gotten coffee or something."

Mackin noticed the garage door was open and Mishou's car was gone. He tried to shrug off the feeling, but the newspapers started piling up.

"Thursday morning when I got there, still two papers were in the box and the garage door was open, something was wrong, very wrong."

Mackin called police. When they arrived, they found Mishou on the floor at the bottom of the stairs.

"I can't believe I did it because I'd been walking those steps for years. That's where my stuff is downstairs. I'll never know what happened, I can't bring that memory back," Mishou says.

Mishou was in the ICU at Eastern Maine Medical Center for ten days.

Doctors say if Mackin hadn't made that call, Mishou would have died of oxygen failure.

He's now being treated at a Brewer rehab facility where he's learning to regain his steps to move forward.

"Anything in the past is over, you know, forget it, put it in the past," Mishou said.

He says Mackin is his hero.

"He's my savior because he saved my life, he actually, he's the only one that got it going."

But Mackin is modest about the ordeal.

"No I'm no hero, just doing what anyone who is concerned would do I guess."

Mackin and Mishou say their relationship has streghtened. They plan on going on a fishing trip this summer.

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