Beaufort County schools superintendent quarantining after performing CPR in Bluffton
Frank Rodriguez, who leads Beaufort County’s schools, is quarantining until Dec. 7 — but it’s not because of COVID-19 exposure at work.
Instead, Rodriguez began quarantining as a precaution after administering CPR to a stranger in the Bluffton Walmart parking lot Saturday afternoon.
Rodriguez said Wednesday that he and his family were putting bags in the back of their car when they saw a woman get out of a nearby vehicle and ask for help.
“When I went over to see what was wrong, they had just pulled into the spot, and her husband had just slumped over,” he said. “She told me it was their 40th wedding anniversary.”
The man was unresponsive. Rodriguez and another bystander pulled him out of the car, and the superintendent began to administer CPR compressions and breaths with the assistance of his wife.
“If it was my dad, I would want somebody doing that,” he said. “You don’t think about it, you just go do it.”
Eventually, paramedics arrived and took over, transporting the man in an ambulance. Rodriguez said he didn’t get the names of the couple or the other bystander, and he doesn’t know what the man’s health status is.
“I’ve been thinking about it a lot and hoping for the best, but we have no way of knowing,” he said.
Rodriguez, who was hired to lead the district in 2019 and has overseen all of its schools’ coronavirus reopening and safety decisions, began quarantining after the event and will spend a total of 10 days in quarantine.
He said he’s been working through quarantine remotely via Zoom.
“The main thing I can’t do, obviously, is go to the school district or visit classrooms or schools,” he said. “Just about everything else I can take care of.”