The fast actions of a First Aid & Safety
Sales Representative, using CPR and an AED, helped save a life
during a child’s baseball practice.
In recognition of National Heart Health Month, Cintas
Corporation (Nasdaq: CTAS) celebrates the immediate and courageous
actions taken by one of its First Aid & Safety Sales
Representative TJ McMahon, based in Charlotte, N.C., that helped
save a life.
This press release features multimedia. View
the full release here:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230202005005/en/
As National Heart Month kicks off, learn
how Cintas First Aid & Safety Sales Representative TJ McMahon
(right) used CPR and an AED he kept in his truck to save the life
of his son's baseball coach, Rem Crawford (left) in August 2022 in
Fort Mill, S.C. Full story: https://cint.as/4040o3R (Photo:
Business Wire)
Sudden cardiac arrest presents a serious and escalating health
challenge. More than 350,000 people suffer out-of-hospital cardiac
events each year1. McMahon’s training enabled him to be
ready™ for the unexpected and reinforced CPR and AEDs’
critical function in saving lives.
“What we do matters,” McMahon said. “To be involved directly, to
see the outcome – and then what comes from the outcome – 100%
solidifies what I do for a living.”
>> WATCH THE STORY ON YOUTUBE:
https://cint.as/4040o3R
As McMahon watched his son’s summer baseball practice unfold on
Aug. 27, 2022, in Fort Mill, S.C., angling his chair along the
shaded third-base line for relief from the heat, he had no idea he
was about to save a man’s life.
Batting practice had just begun when McMahon noticed his son’s
coach, Rem Crawford, face-down on the ground.
McMahon raced to Crawford’s side. He was not breathing. He had
no pulse.
“I immediately knew I had some form of relief inside of my
truck,” McMahon said.
Because of his sales role in Cintas’ First Aid & Safety
division, McMahon travels everywhere with an Automated External
Defibrillator (AED). The device analyzes a person’s heartbeat and
issues an electrical shock when detecting an uncoordinated rhythm,
and Cintas has helped save more than 600 lives with AEDs provided
across the country.
The next few minutes were an adrenaline-charged blur. McMahon
asked someone to call 911, sent the players into a nearby parking
lot away from the scene, bit open the AED pads with his teeth and
tore off the cellophane in a frenzy.
McMahon’s training was a crucial part of the life-saving
measures, as he knew how to perform compressions, study real-time
feedback from the AED and deliver shocks. Emergency Medical
Technicians reinforced the process by phone as they sped toward the
diamond.
And then, success.
“About 30 to 45 seconds into that second set, Rem comes back to
life,” McMahon said.
The incident happened so quickly that Crawford’s wife of 19
years, Ember, had yet to arrive. All three Crawford children had
gone with Rem to practice while Ember, in a rare instance, had
stayed home. She jumped into action when her 13-year-old daughter
called in tears.
“She said, ‘Dad’s on the ground and I don’t know what’s wrong.
They said he’s not breathing,’” Ember said. “Please come!”
Ember rushed out of the house without closing the front door.
She spoke briefly by phone with Emergency Medical Services before
her daughter called again, this time with good news: Rem was awake
and traveling to the hospital via ambulance.
Thank you, God, she remembered thinking, that I didn’t have to
raise my children alone. That they don’t have to be without a dad.
And that I don’t have to do life alone.
Ember seized the opportunity to thank the man who’d saved her
husband’s life when she arrived at the field. Another coach pointed
out McMahon, who was pacing.
“I’d been OK until then. I was able to pull myself together. And
then I walked up and just hugged him and said thank you,” Ember
recounted tearfully.
“I was like, ‘No, no, don’t thank me. We were at the right place
at the right time with the right stuff,” McMahon said.
Ember was convinced her husband would not have survived without
McMahon’s quick action and accessibility to the AED. Rem spent the
next week recovering at the hospital after doctors inserted an
internal defibrillator to maintain the rhythm of his heartbeat.
In time, Rem was able to recount the circumstances leading to
his collapse. He’d been nervous about leading the baseball team –
his first head coaching role after years as an assistant coach –
and worried about making mistakes.
Rem remembered feeling off as batting practice began but
couldn’t say why. The heat, probably. He became light-headed and
began sweating profusely.
“I got some water off the bench, came back and that’s when it
happened. Everything went white. Next thing I know, there’s a
paramedic above me,” Rem said. “Very, very strange. I thought it
was a panic attack or something. Exertion. I wasn’t quite
sure.”
He was emotional and grateful after finding out the measures
McMahon had taken, and he wanted to meet the man who saved his
life. He did a little research from afar, even visiting McMahon’s
LinkedIn page to learn more about the person he called his
hero.
They finally met in person at the ballpark in September, less
than a month after Rem’s heart attack. Ember flagged down McMahon,
who approached her car thinking he’d shake her husband’s hand.
Instead, McMahon and Rem hugged for nearly 45 seconds.
“It wasn’t a hand-shaking moment,” McMahon said.
They became fast friends as dusk slipped into darkness. The men
shared their perspectives of the incident, spoke at length about
the AED’s impact and even made plans for their families to spend
time together over the holidays. What started as quick action by
McMahon became an unbreakable bond between two families that
continues today.
“I can’t thank him enough for what he’s done for us, for me, for
my family, for my future,” Rem added.
_______________________________ 1 American Heart Association.
2021. CPR Facts & Stats.
https://cpr.heart.org/en/resources/cpr-facts-and-stats
About Cintas Corporation
Cintas Corporation helps more than one million businesses of all
types and sizes get Ready™ to open their doors with
confidence every day by providing products and services that help
keep their customers’ facilities and employees clean, safe, and
looking their best. With offerings including uniforms, mats, mops,
towels, restroom supplies, workplace water services, first aid and
safety products, eye-wash stations, safety training, fire
extinguishers, sprinkler systems and alarm service, Cintas helps
customers get Ready for the Workday®. Headquartered in
Cincinnati, Cintas is a publicly held Fortune 500 Company traded
over the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol CTAS and is a
component of both the Standard & Poor’s 500 index and the
Nasdaq-100 index.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230202005005/en/
Lizz Summers, Cintas Director of Corporate Affairs |
summerse2@cintas.com, 513-972-2859
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