Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 16, 1994 TAG: 9407120069
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Frank Nichols, Lloyd Bridges Jr. and Billy Thurman came to the aid of Katherine Angel and her son, Tarleton, 2, when the boy had a seizure.
Nichols, who performed CPR on the boy, apparently saved his life.
"I don't know what to say [to thank them] or how to go about it," Angel said. "If they hadn't been there, [Tarleton] probably would have died."
The men were installing new electrical service at a home on Virginia 742. Bridges, a line mechanic who was high in the air in a bucket truck, heard Angel first and saw her in her front yard.
Angel, 36, said her husband, Randall, was at work in Martinsville and she was alone with her son when he had the seizure. She said he had never had one before.
"He was playing fine all morning, then he all of a sudden acted like he was choking and took to slobbering," she said.
She swept the child up and ran into the yard calling for help.
"I heard the lady scream, but it would've taken me 10 minutes to get down there," Bridges said. "I almost wanted to just jump out of there."
Bridges called to Nichols and Thurman, on the ground, to help her.
Thurman radioed for a rescue squad while Nichols, the crew's supervisor, ran 100 yards to where Angel was standing.
The child had stopped breathing, so Nichols performed CPR.
Bridges said when he arrived at Nichols' side he thought the boy was dead, but after about five minutes Nichols revived him.
Bridges said the boy suddenly started coughing and crying. "It was real scary," Bridges said. "I've got a boy about that age myself, and that's the first thing I thought of."
The rescue squad arrived a few minutes later and took Angel and her son to Franklin Memorial Hospital, where Tarleton was treated and released. Angel said doctors suspected the seizure was related to an ear infection but weren't sure.
The men stayed with her until the ambulance arrived, she said. "I just don't know what I would have done if they hadn't been there," she said.
by CNB