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Insights > Employee’s Training Kicks in When Customer Yells, ‘Somebody Help Me’
Employee’s Training Kicks in When Customer Yells, ‘Somebody Help Me’
07/16/2019
When your toddler is very ill and you’re in a panic, it’s good to have someone nearby who knows what to do.
Robert White, who coordinates tree trimming for Entergy Arkansas in the Little Rock area, was at a job site in the Heights neighborhood the afternoon of July 1 when a man holding the limp body of his two-year-old son ran into the residential street hollering, “Somebody help me!”
White immediately recognized a potentially life-threatening situation and first called 911 on his mobile phone. “Then I ran over to where the man was, got him out of the road and started checking the child’s breathing and pulse.”
White is married to a trauma nurse at UAMS and has a heightened sense of the need to be prepared. All Entergy field employees are also trained in CPR. On his own, White had taken things a step further and gotten trained in infant CPR. Also, all Entergy jobs in the field include an exercise in which potential hazards are identified and all on site know the 911 address of the site and the location of the nearest hospital. Because of this, White knew exactly where to tell 911 to send first responders.
“I put my ear on his chest to check for a heartbeat and felt for a pulse in his wrist and neck. Also I was watching his chest to make sure he was breathing.” The child was ill with a high fever, but vitals were okay, and White relayed this information to the 911 operator.
“I was fully ready to give him CPR, to give him chest compressions, but I didn’t want to. Because it really becomes real at that moment. It’s serious. I was glad EMS showed up when they did,” White recalled.
White checked on the family later and learned that the boy was home from the hospital and all was well.
A 19-year Entergy Arkansas veteran, White said, “I’m thankful that I work for a company that encourages and, in fact, requires employees to know what to do in case of emergency. And I’m glad I could be there for that family when they needed some help in the middle of a very scary situation.”
