Southside Fire and EMS Director Tim Genest is back to work -- not bad for a guy who dropped dead two months ago.
He and some co-workers were in a Sam's Club in Georgia when it happened. Genest told WTOC reporters he wondered why his friends were walking so fast. That's the last thing he remembered.
"Tim made a grunting sound and then hit the floor," Assistant EMS Director Bengie Cowart said. "We knelt down beside Tim and started assessing him. He was not breathing and had no pulse."
Southside firefighter and paramedic David Cartee who also was on the shopping trip started mouth to mouth while Coward did compressions. They continued until an ambulance crew took over.
Southside firefighter and paramedic Vanessa Nowinsky didn't know the patient in cardiac arrest was her boss.
The crew recalled the save with reporters this weekend as they are being lauded for ripping their boss away from the jaws of death.
They continued the life-saving effort in the emergency room, and about two minutes later they detected a pulse.
He had been in arrest for 12 minutes.
Six days later, Genest would hear the story for the first time. He had suffered what doctors call a widow maker, a massive heart attack that very few survive.
The medics being honored say just having their boss back with them is thanks enough.
But, he disagrees. "..."Had they not been there, I wouldn't be here."
