Safety Manager Relies on Training to Save a Life
"Code 3. Code 3. We have a heart attack at 174."
It was a Monday morning in August at wind project in Texas when Conrad Seymour, a crane operator, was planning with his crew to fly rebar for a turbine foundation. Meanwhile, the project team was having their daily POD meeting in the jobsite office. As soon as Halle Reeves, Site Safety Manager, heard the call, she quickly grabbed the AED machine and made her way to tower 174. Upon her arrival, Seymour was seated on the ground outside his truck. Alert and responsive, Seymour asked Reeves if he could get into a truck to escape the southern Texas sun. Shortly after, Seymour began to seize and vomit. With the help of Adrian Medina, who works for a subcontractor, West Wind Reinforcing, the two got Seymour on the ground into the recovery position.
“When I turned him over and I didn’t feel a pulse, it’s almost like I knew it. It didn’t surprise me,” recalls Reeves. “Because of the way things went south so quickly. I just knew the AED was going to have to be used.”
Modern AED machines provide guidance throughout the resuscitation process, giving cues to pacing and intensity of CPR chest compressions, as well as notification if shocks are required. In the 40 minutes between the initial 911 call and the ambulance arriving, Reeves shocked Seymour three times and also gave Medina a crash course so that he could take over chest compressions while Reeves ensured the ambulance made it to the correct location.
Looking back, Seymour is aware of how dire the situation was. “When I was speaking to the cardiologist, they were pretty amazed I made it at all, as long as it took [to get to the hospital] and as long as I was unconscious,” he said. “There's no question if Halle hadn't been there and knew CPR, knowing how to use the AED, I would not be standing here. There's no question about that, at all.”
With American Heart Month highlighted throughout the month of February, it's crucial that individuals focus on heart health and how others can achieve a healthy lifestyle. Currently, heart disease is the number one cause of death in the United States with over 10,000 cardiac arrests occurring annually in the workplace. With the proper training, everyone has the potential to save a life. As Reeves pointed out, anything can happen at any point in time and it is imperative that everyone is trained on proper techniques so that they can be prepared for any situation.
"First-aid/CPR/AED training is great basic training for anyone, at any level, said IEA Vice President of Health, Safety and Environment Kevin Turner. "More incidents happen off the job, so having this training helps make our world a little safer with people able to knowingly respond to the incidents around them."
At IEA, safety is not just a word we talk about, but it is the core of who we are as a company. Our CPR and First Aid classes are open to all employees and not just those who work on the jobsite. If you would like to be trained so you can help in critical situations, please reach out to our safety department to sign up for the next training session.
"We are going in the right direction," says Director of Training Shawn Woods. IEA has trained over 600 employees in First-Aid, CPR and AED in the last four years, and 200 in 2020 alone.
“I had met [Reeves] one time before that, and now we have a relationship like no other. We special bond, now. I will always be grateful to her for what she did,” noted Seymour. “There’s no way to repay someone for that.”
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