The Arlington Fire Department recognized two car service shop employees and a customer who saved the life of a man who had a heart attack.
Paul Davis had a heart attack while in the waiting area of Kwik Kar Lube in Arlington.
"I sat down, picked up the paper to read it and woke up five days later packed in ice and in the emergency room," he said.
Gordon Star, who was also waiting for his car, was the only other person in the waiting area at the time.
"He was reading the paper, and I was reading "Sports Illustrated," he said. "Then I heard the paper hit the floor, and I looked over to see him kind of rigid, sitting on the edge of the chair. Then he started convulsing."
Star ran to the counter, frantically rang the service bell and screamed for help.
Kwik Kar employees sprang into action while Star performed CPR on Davis.
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"Everybody was doing something," employee Gina Martinez said. "We had one on the phone with 911. I was communicating in between them, [and] two gentlemen, one doing CPR."
"That's the reason why he's alive," said Johnny Byrd, the paramedic who responded to the 911 call. "If the bystanders didn't start CPR, we would have had to do an additional two minutes of CPR from the time we arrived."
Those two minutes could have been the difference between life and death, Byrd said.
While CPR was being performed, paramedics happened to be in the Kwik Kar parking lot when the 911 call came in. They had previously arranged to meet another EMS crew there.
"The paramedics whisked in, and we just scattered, and they just took over, and within a couple of minutes, you could see him coming back," said Alison Dolezal, the Kwik Kar employee who called 911. "It was amazing."
"They literally saved my life," Davis said. "That's what it's all about -- folks helping folks."
"We're part of this big ol' family now," said Davis' wife, Betty. "We're part of the fire department and the Kwik Kar family. All I can say is, God is good."
