The workweek had barely gotten started at Shaw Moving & Storage in Crestview on July 12 when a 50-year old employee suffered a major heart attack.
Brian Mccallum the Saviour
“He fell over with a heart attack,” described company president Craig Shaw, describing Skinner’s incident. “It was early in the morning. We hadn’t even done anything yet. He had just gotten here.”
Fortunately for Bernard Skinner, Officer Brian McCallum was on patrol when the emergency call came in. Thanks to his training, fast response and the availability of the emergency device properly called an automated external defibrillator, or AED, the outcome was a happy one.
Shaw said Skinner had no history of heart troubles before the event. He credited the officer and the city’s purchase of the AEDs for saving his employee.
McCallum, a two-year veteran with the force, said audio instructions on the AED talk the responder through the procedure as the device analyzes the victim’s condition. “It determines whether to shock the person,” McCallum said.
As for Skinner, he was released from the hospital and, “He’s alive and up and running around, but he hasn’t been released for work,” Shaw said.
“He surprised me,” McCallum said. “He was out of the hospital within a week. I stopped by and talked to him.”
