Today's Featured Heroes

Workplace Good Samaritan – Saving a Life at Zion’s Bank

Belem Jimenez and Robert Storey were helping customers at Zion’s Bank on what started as a typical day in the workplace when they heard a loud thud and saw a customer had collapsed.

An elderly male customer had hit the floor hard. He was struggling to breathe. Belem ran to his side and comforted him. She called out for help, “Does anyone know CPR?” Robert responded and ran to help. He recalls, “He breath was very raspy and his movements were unnatural. He was getting progressively worse and I knew I was witnessing the end of a human life. I was sure he was going to die. His breathing quieted and he stopped struggling. I held my ear to his mouth and listened, placed my fingers on his lips. He wasn’t breathing.” Belem had just taken a CPR class recently herself and Robert had taken CPR many times as an Eagle Scout.

The two of them rolled the man over onto his back and began their lifesaving efforts. All the while Robert was thinking, “This could be someone’s grandpa, someone’s dad.” Robert tipped the man’s chin up, cleared his airway of obstructions. Belem reminded him to pinch the man’s nose, and Robert gave his patient rescue breaths. “It was so natural, I just breathed air into him, I just did what I was trained to do.” Later, people said that Belem and Robert had been calm, but Robert said his anxiety level, “Raised through the roof!” Robert continued, “I breathed in him twice. Before starting compressions, I felt for his breath again and to my surprise, he was breathing again!” The man slowly regained consciousness.

Soon, paramedics arrived and took over. Belem and Robert’s smart teamwork brought this man back to life. Belem shares, “When you are taking CPR and AED classes, you hope you never have to use these skills, but when things happen, everybody should know what to do.” Robert says this was the most amazing experience of his life, “To be that close to death and in some way help. It was awesome.”

Together, Belem and Robert saved a life.

By Susan Thomas

Read more stories of local heroes at http://www.utahredcross.org/general.asp?SN=200&OP=5125&IDCapitulo=I2OD6QV708