When you find yourself in a situation where someone else's life depends on your action, you have a choice to help or to walk away.

Twenty-one-year-old Jordan Weber and 20-year-old Dylan Flexer, two area college students working on the Carbon County bridge crew over their summer break, needed to make that ultimate choice when a jogger collapsed on the side of the road near Beltzville State Park on June 12.The pair called 911 and performed CPR on 26-year-old David Smyth IV until paramedics arrived, reviving the young man following his seizure.Unfortunately, Smyth's trauma was severe and he passed away two days later in Lehigh Valley Hospital's Salisbury Township campus.Last week Smyth's father, David; stepmother, Christine; and sister and 5-year-old niece, Amanda and Charlotte, met Weber and Flexer at their job site in Lehighton to thank them for trying to save their son."I want to thank you so much," David said to the two young men as he handed them small orange envelopes as a token of the family's appreciation. "We wanted to thank you for what you did."David had epilepsy," his father said. "It wasn't real bad but just enough to hold him back in life. We thought we had it under control because he hadn't had a seizure in three years, but then about a month ago he had a seizure for no reason."Weber and Flexer said they had just finished working on the bridge near Beltzville and were washing up when they heard a man yell. They looked up and saw Smyth, who had jogged by the group a few minutes earlier, collapse and realized he was seizing.The two ran over and called 911. Jordan then began administering CPR. Dylan then took over until help arrived.This news helped the Smyth family understand what happened to their son that fateful day because until now, they weren't sure how long he was down before the boys found him."I'm glad he wasn't alone," Christine said.After help arrived, David was transported to the hospital, where he fought for his life. But as the hours ticked by, his system started shutting down."He was in for two days and pretty much everything was shutting down and the doctors were saying there was no brain activity," David's father said. "After two days we said enough is enough and asked them to do an EEG to see if there was any activity in the brain."There was not, and the family was forced to make a decision to let their son go."David was a great kid," his father told Weber and Flexer, adding that he graduated from Lehighton in 2009 and was currently going to school for electrical engineering at Lehigh Carbon Community College, while working at Walmart. "He was trying because the things he wanted to do, he couldn't (because of his condition)."This whole thing is a bad nightmare that I wish I would wake up from," Smyth continued. "But this gives us some type of closure."Amanda said that the family is currently working to create a memorial bench in David's name, which will be placed in Beltzville State Park.She thanked Flexer and Weber for their bravery in a time when most walk away."You went in there and you tried to help," she said. "Most people wouldn't do that."Flexer, who lost a brother a few years earlier, was taken aback by her comment, noting that it was the least that they could have done in that situation.Weber echoed Flexer's thought."We hope that if we were in the same situation, someone would do the same for us," he said."You gave him a chance," David's father said. "We really do appreciate that."Commendations from commissionersThe Carbon County Commissioners recenty commended Weber of Summit Hill and Flexer of Lehighton for their courage in helping David Smyth IV of Lehighton after he collapsed on the side of the road near Beltzville State Park."These two young men got involved in a time when most people seem to not want to get involved," Commissioner William O'Gurek said. "I am proud of these two boys. They acted prudently and helped the man. I commend them."Commissioners Thomas J. Gerhard and Chairman Wayne Nothstein, echoed O'Gurek's thoughts."I am very proud of these two gentlemen," Gerhard said. "A lot of time the youth get criticized for not wanting to step up like that, but these two did.""They were in the right place at the right time," Nothstein said. "They are to be congratulated for their efforts."Both Weber and Flexer are not that much younger than the 26-year-old Smyth and were following similar paths.Weber, 21, is attending Misericordia University, majoring in health care management with an emphasis on physical therapy; while Flexer, 20, is going to Mansfield University, where he is studying psychology.