Cashier Hums A Bee Gees Song To Perform CPR And Saves A Customer’s Life
When I was in nursing school, they taught us to do CPR to the beat of “Staying Alive” from the Bee Gees. If you use that song as a guideline, you will compress the chest at a rate of 100 – 120 beats to minute — which is ideal when you are trying to save a life with CPR.
But, here’s the thing. I didn’t know anyone actually did it. When things get crazy, and someone codes, the LAST thing you are thinking about is a song by the Bee Gees.
Luckily, someone was paying attention!
A cashier in a British supermarket actually saved a customer’s life by humming the Bee Gees song for TWENTY THREE minutes, while she did chest compressions and waited for the paramedics to arrive.
Checkouts colleague Gayle Tomlinson from our Rossington store used the beat of Stayin’ Alive by The Bee Gees to perform lifesaving CPR for 23 minutes when regular customer Nigel Gronous had a cardiac arrest and stopped breathing while out shopping with his wife Vicki.
ASDA Press Release
Fifty-four-year-old, Nigel Gronous, collapsed up by the checkouts at the ASDA store in Rossington, South Yorkshire.
Gayle sprung into action. She rushed over to help, and yelled for a customer called 999 (the equivalent of 911 in the States).
Nigel went from bad to worse. He quickly became unresponsive and stopped breathing.
When they got a hold of the operator at 999, the operator asked if the store had a defibrillator — which, thank goodness, they did.
The Cashier Hooked The Unresponsive Customer Up To The Store’s Defibrillator
They hooked Nigel up to the store’s defibrillator, and followed the prompts on the machine (it usually gives voice prompts).
The defibrillator kept analysing his heart rhythms and continued to tell me to keep doing CPR and then it said ‘shock required’ so we stood back and then continued CPR. At this point he still wasn’t breathing. We carried on, really determined, and then there was a lady there who was a carer who jumped in for me at the very end and did three or four compressions and he started to take gasps for air. There was just sheer relief when he started to breathe again, and the paramedics arrived at that point.
Gayle Tomlinson, via an ASDA Press Release
Here’s the kicker. Gayle had never even taken a CPR class!
Her mom, who was a nurse, taught her a few things, and she “picked things up” from watching TV shows and just from listening to what was going on around her.
I didn’t have time to think about it – I just did it. I haven’t done anything special – I just did what anyone else would have done in that situation. I was just in the right place at the right time. It was such a shock as one minute he was there and the next minute he wasn’t.
Gayle Tomlinson, via an ASDA Press Release
Trained or not, Nigel is LUCKY that he had Gayle there to help. I only hope I’m so lucky if I’m ever unfortunate enough to go into cardiac arrest!!
Thanks, Gayle, for stepping in and saving a life.
