At least three to five times a week, for the past 20 years,
David Leake, Hickory Hill Service Center Garage, takes a nightly jog. Usually
his evening run is uneventful, until one warm Sunday night in May when Leake
drove to the Old Hernando High School football field in Hernando, Miss.
As he prepared for his run, he saw a woman trying to coax a
man from the ground to her car. He watched for a moment, assessed the situation
and decided to see what was wrong.
When he approached the duo, the man was struggling to
breathe.
“She was trying to get him in the car and drive him to the
hospital. His chest wasn’t moving and he seemed to be getting worse the longer
we waited. I thought, ‘I have to do something,’ ” Leake said.
Leake asked the woman to call 911 and began chest
compressions. On the second set of compressions, Leake said the barely
conscious man seemed to go into shock.
“He was shaking real bad. I put a sweater under his head and
he went limp. On the third compression, he came back and grabbed my hand tight.
He stayed conscious until first responders got there. I was glad to see the guy
was going to make it,” Leake said.
Leake has worked for MLGW for 20 years, but the encounter in
May was the first time he has ever used CPR. The married father of two and
grandfather of five, said he was surprised by the way everything played out.
For instance, he almost didn’t go jogging that night. On
that particular evening, the field was emptier than usual and he had just learned
CPR two weeks prior during a MLGW training class.
“When the guy passed out, I thought he was going to die. I
couldn’t believe that what I was doing actually worked. It was surprising to me
that he came back,” Leake said. “To know that he has a second chance at life
feels good. A lot of things go through your head when something like this
happens. God gave him a second chance.”
Leake said it was a great feeling to know that something he
learned at work, saved someone in the community.
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