The retired longshoreman, 85-year-old Bill Trujillo, strapped on his helmet and set out on a route he’d traveled many times.
John Heinrich the Saviour with Bill Trujillo the Survivor
There, his memory of that day stops. It picks up 20 days later, when he regained consciousness in a hospital and was told he’d suffered a heart attack, fallen off his bicycle and ultimately underwent six-way bypass surgery.
On Aug. 24, Heinrich was off-duty and traveling with his wife to Wal-Mart to buy supplies for the high school class he helps teach.
They were at the intersection of Elm Street and Mills Avenue when they saw Trujillo lying in the street, tangled in a bicycle about a block south.
They detoured and drove to the man, where Heinrich jumped out of the vehicle.
A bystander was about to move Trujillo out of the roadway, but the firefighter said to wait, in case the man had spinal injuries.
“I checked for a pulse, and he didn’t have one,” Heinrich said.
It all happened very quickly, Heinrich said, but instinct and training kicked in instantly.
He started CPR while using his cell phone to call for help. Fellow on-duty firefighters arrived with a defibrillator and used it twice before Trujillo’s heart started beating again.
“Really, all I did was keep him alive until they got here with the defibrillator,” Heinrich said.
An ambulance soon arrived and took Trujillo to Lodi Memorial Hospital. He was then transferred to Mercy Hospital in Sacramento.
Mike Trujillo noted that Heinrich’s training saved his father’s life, allowing the family to celebrate Thanksgiving today.
“He acted not only as a fireman but as a citizen,” he said. “We should probably all learn CPR.”
