William Jackson was delivering flowers for his wife’s shop, Edna’s Southpoint Florist, when he passed out at the wheel.
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The incident began about lunchtime on Jan. 5, when the workers at the Mary Washington office discovered that Jackson had crashed into the passenger side of Little’s parked car.
He had apparently suffered a cardiac arrest. He was upright and unconscious in his seat. He still had his foot on the accelerator, and his van was pushing against Little’s Grand Cherokee.
Little, Mock and Hebb rushed to the parking lot to find white smoke coming from the tangle of vehicles, and the horn on the van blaring.
Little said she recalls the strong smell of burning rubber and was afraid that the van might catch fire.
“I don’t know what this car is going to do,” she remembers thinking. “We have to get him out.”
Little grabbed the man’s feet, and the others, including Dawn Shannon, had his head. Together they moved him from behind the wheel onto the ground.
Little is one of the supervisors at the Massaponax office. Mock is a field supervisor, and Hebb is a case manager. All three are registered nurses trained in CPR.
The man had no pulse and was not breathing, so Hebb began chest compressions.
Another employee in the office brought a barrier mask so Mock could begin respirations. And soon Leann Curtis showed up with the office defibrillator.
They raised the man’s shirt and applied the pads, but the defibrillator did not recommend a shock.
When a crew from a Spotsylvania rescue squad arrived, they took over CPR. The crew transported the man to the Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center.
From there, he was taken to Henrico Doctors’ Hospital in Richmond. This week he was transferred to a hospice unit.
“You always want to do what you can,” Little said. “There’s always a chance.”
