Paramedics tell Hilton Head man his neighbor ‘would not have made it’ without his help
Michael Norris had been living in his apartment building on Hilton Head for less than a week when he found a neighbor collapsed in a shared hallway Monday night and sprang into action.
Norris, general manager of House of Honey in Coligny Plaza on Hilton Head, said he doesn’t know what happened to cause the man’s illness. He heard a commotion in the hallway around 10 p.m. and was curious about what was going on.
“It’s a very hollow type of hallway,” Norris said of his apartment building near Helmsman Way. “Any talking or anything like that, you’re going to hear an echo. ... I thought someone was out there doing exercise.”
The man’s sister was visibly upset, crying while attempting to perform chest compressions with the direction of a 911 operator, Norris said. He jumped in without hesitation, he said, because it’s what he would want someone to do for him if he were in that situation.
“He was gone for a minute,” Norris said. “Eventually, there was some response. He’d give a little response and then nothing.”
Norris said he had taken a course on CPR years ago but never had the opportunity to use it.
Performing chest compressions was tiring, he said, but he did not want to give up.
Joheida Fister, spokesperson for Hilton Head Island Fire Rescue, confirmed that a bystander was giving the man CPR at the instruction of 911 operators when paramedics arrived. She said the department received the call for assistance at 10:04 p.m. and arrived at 10:11 p.m.
“That’s part of what we try to promote in this community, to learn CPR,” she said. The town uses the Pulse Point cellphone app to alert bystanders in an area when someone needs help.
She said 911 dispatchers are trained to give good CPR instructions over the phone.
“Anytime that people take action and listen to our dispatchers and follow their CPR instructions, it will more than likely have a positive outcome,” Fister said.
Norris was hoping to hear from the man’s sister for an update on his condition. The man was conscious by the time paramedics carried him out of the building.
“They told me, ‘If you had not been here to do this, he probably would not have made it,’” Norris said. “The sister ... gave me the biggest hug someone could ever give someone.”
How to give someone CPR
The Red Cross’ website offers these instructions for CPR:
- Call 911 or ask a bystander to call, then send someone to get an AED if one is available.
- Open the person’s airway by tilting the head back slightly to lift the chin. If the person isn’t breathing, begin CPR.
- Place your hands, one on top of the other, in the middle of the chest. Use your body weight to help you administer compressions that are at least 2 inches deep and delivered at a rate of at least 100 compressions per minute.
- With the person’s head tilted back slightly and the chin lifted, pinch the nose shut and place your mouth over the person’s mouth to make a complete seal. Blow into the person’s mouth to make the chest rise. Deliver two rescue breaths, then continue compressions.
- Keep performing cycles of chest compressions and breathing until the person exhibits signs of life, an AED becomes available, or a trained medical responder arrives on scene.
