http://ozarkspub.vo.llnwd.net/o37/KSMU/audio/mp3/electric-linemen-use-cpr-training-save-life_80290.mp3
RANDY: Brian Wade has been an electric lineman for Laclede Electric Cooperative in Lebanon, Missouri for seven years.
"What's the job of a lineman?"
BRIAN WADE: The job of a lineman is making sure when people flip their light switch, the light comes on! That's pretty much--maintenance is most of it, taking care of outages.
RANDY: That pretty well sums up the job of an electric lineman--the people who maintain and repair the thousands of miles of pwoer lines that we all count on every day. Working with high-voltage lines many feet above the ground can be dangerous, as you might expect, and that's why Laclede Electric offers periodic training in First Aid and CPR. That same CPR training can come in handy when electric line workers encounter someone in the general public in need of immediate help. Brian Wade happened to be out on a service call in rural Laclede County on a pleasant Saturday afternoon in April 2012. Riding with him that day was twenty-three-year veteran Leo Marler, who takes up the story.
LEO MARLER: We got the people's service back on, an a we were leaving the place we were pulling out onto the highway--and we saw, for lack of a better word, a commotion, people gathered around in a yard. And there's a gentleman laying on the ground. And we didn't even have to ask each other--we just went over there. You know, we saw that something was up and it looked like somebody was in trouble. So we just went over and starting giving our help. Brian went over to check on the guy, and I was getting some stuff out of the truck--you know, you're just trying to think, "Okay, what do I need?"
RANDY: So what exactly had happened to this person?
BRIAN: He was just laying on the ground unconscious... purple. And from everything I'd seen I thought he was already gone. But we just started checking for vital signs, and there were some ladies that were already there. And one of them said that they were giving chest compressions. And I checked for a pulse--and he had a pulse. He just wasn't breathing at the time.
RANDY: The people on the scene had called 911 for an ambulance, but that took some ten minutes to arrive. Meantime, Leo and Brian continued working on the man, and were able to call upon their CPR training--even when the victim didn't respond at first.
LEO: Once we tried and were not able to get any air going, we went through our steps of what we needed to do--you know, re-tilting the head, we cleared his airway. And then I remember giving him a couple of breaths... and how easy it went! It wsa just like whenever we were in our training. It was almost immediately--
BRIAN: You could see the chest rise. Once the first breath went in, he started trying to breathe on his own. And he was still having trouble breathing, so Leo had to continue breathing for him until the ambulance got there. It's unreal how much of that stuff you remember until you have to use it. It just--it becomes second nature. That's why we do it every year--keeps you in the loop.
LEO: Of course, the good thing about it was that I wasn't there by myself--Brian was there. And Brian wasn't there by himself either. And we were able to talk things out whenever we saw that things weren't working out as we wre trying to help this person--you know, "Brian, I can't get any air in!" So, just immediately Brian went to re-tilt their head back to open up the airway. It's stuff that really was second nature because of our training.
RANDY: Leo Marler says they were also grateful to have an emergency-room triage nurse on the phone relaying instructions and encouragement.
LEO: That was really reassuring too, knowing that there was somebody at least on the phone.
RANDY: When the ambulance arrived, the EMTs didn't simply push Brian and Leo out of the way, either.
LEO: They just had us stay there and we helped do different things, and they were going about their business. They were very good about talking with us on what they were doing.
BRIAN: Yeah.
LEO: As a matter of fact, it was neat, the calmness they showed whenever they were working on this person.
BRIAN: One of them was humming...! (laughter)
LEO: Yeah, one of them was humming.
RANDY: Okay, how calm were you guys when you were working on him?
LEO: Oh, it was nothing like--
BRIAN: We weren't THAT calm!
LEO (chuckling): Yeah, we weren't hummin' or whistlin' or nothin' (laughter), but it was nice to see, you know. Those were professionals--and it was just another day for them.
RANDY: The fact that the man's wife, mother-in-law and children were on the scene made saving the man seem even more urgent and important. Thankfully, it turned out well.
LEO: He was out of the hospital that evening, wasn't he?
BRIAN: I think so.
LEO: I called somebody the next day, and they said that everything was fine.
RANDY: Interestingly, there's been no contact between the two linemen and the victim they helped save, in the nearly two years since the incident. But their good deed didn't go unnoticed: they were nominated for, and received, the Laclede County Red Cross Lifesaver Hometown Heroes Award for 2013. We'll have more from Brian and Leo, and the CPR instructor who taught them, today at 4:30. I'm Randy Stewart.