ASHI and MEDIC First Aid Blog

Get your holiday weekend off to an inspiring start with today’s Good Samaritan story from Goodwill Industries of San Antonio.

Goodwill Industries of San Antonio Chief Administrative and Human Resources Officer Janice Bunch shared a story about Humberto Contreras, who was trained in emergency care by ASHI instructors Taryn Anderson and Shawna Maloney.

She writes that:

“At approximately 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, August 6, 2016, team members observed Luis Morales fall backwards on the dock ramp at the warehouse while loading the trash compactor. Humberto Contreras observed the team member to be in-and-out of consciousness and convulsing.

Thinking the team member was having a seizure, the patient was moved off the ramp and into the warehouse while Humberto called 911. After describing the incident to the 911 operator, Humberto was instructed to time the team member’s breaths. The 911 operator then determined the team member was having a heart attack and instructed Humberto to begin chest compressions.

During the approximate 10-minute period required for EMS to arrive, Humberto continued to perform CPR while other team members cleaned up vomit and waved down the ambulance. The paramedics administered three shocks from their defibrillator prior to placing the patient in the ambulance and taking him to the downtown Baptist Hospital.

Greg Eads, [Goodwill Industries of San Antonio’s] VP of Retail, visited the team member in the hospital the next day and was informed by Mrs. Morales that Luis would not have survived without the CPR he received before the ambulance arrived. Humberto later remarked that he just recently learned CPR in a Goodwill CPR class he attended in January.”

Fantastic job and a heartfelt thanks to Humberto and all the Goodwill staffers who made a lifesaving difference for their coworker and his family!

For more Good Sam inspiration, check out our video featuring several ASHI and MEDIC First Aid instructors:

A special note to our instructors attending Spark 2016, the HSI International Conference, October 24-26 in Phoenix: If you have student stories or your own Good Samaritan story you would like to share, we want to know! We’ll have a video team onsite to capture interviews with our instructors to help us spread the word about how a simple emergency care class can make all the difference in the world to someone in need. If you are interested in participating in this video project, please call us at 800.447.3177 ext. 368.