A 72-year-old woman had a heart attack at a Target outside Salem, Oregon on Saturday. Her name hasn’t been released, but two managers saw it happen and rushed over to help. One of them was 24-year-old Austin Snelling. He checked her pulse, couldn’t find one, and started doing CPR.
The other was 37-year-old Brad Dickerson, who ran to get the store’s AED machine. They’re those portable defibrillators you connect to the person’s chest, and it shocks their heart back into rhythm. And he was a little worried he might not use it right. But within about five minutes, the woman had a pulse again, and started breathing.
Then Austin and Brad had their employees run and get pillows and blankets to cover her up until paramedics got there. She’s still in the hospital, but it looks like she’ll be okay.
According to a spokesman for the local fire department, it’s an example of how important having an AED machine is. He also gave Target a lot of credit for training their employees to use it.
