Quick Action Saves Life
News & Happenings
August 10, 2007
By Darryl Vaughan
Model Workplace program manager
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff
(left) congratulates TSO Gordon Redman for
his role in saving a man's life at Ronald
Reagan Washington National Airport as TSA
Administrator Kip Hawley looks on.
The male passenger who Transportation Security Officer Gordon Redman had just been talking with suddenly had a pale, empty stare, and then collapsed backwards to the floor of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport's North Tier.
It was the morning of August 8 and, as TSO Redman would say later, "If he was going to collapse, he couldn't have found a better place to do it."
Redman, a retired Washington, D.C. firefighter and licensed emergency medical technician, found no pulse and immediately began cardio-pulmonary resuscitation. US Airways Captain Phillip Cotte, who was in line just behind the unconscious passenger, joined in, giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation coordinated with Redman’s chest compressions.
From the now-closed checkpoint, Lead TSO Cheryl Fernandez called for medical responders as Redmond and Cotte continued their efforts. The man’s coloration turned purple, clearly discouraging the gathered crowd as CPR went on for several minutes.
TSO Latonia Byrd, a 2 ½ -year volunteer firefighter in a Maryland suburb, took over the chest compressions.
Officer Tim Moore of the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority arrived with a defibrillator. He delivered one shock. There was a pulse. The man's color and breathing improved. Later, he was reported recovering from a heart attack at an area hospital.
It was a life-saving event that had stretched on for perhaps 20 minutes, the first TSO Byrd had faced. “I just did what I was trained to do as a firefighter,” she said. The veteran, Redman, said, "CPR, and the defibrillator on the scene, saved that man's life!"
