Strangers Come Together to Save a Life

Survivor Warren Bessling is surrounded by his rescuers.

September 8, 2014 - Tammie Crowder, a 30-year ER nurse, and her daughter were in the Chattanooga, Tenn., Books-a-Million store to pick up a couple of books before going on vacation when she heard a woman cry out for help because her husband had collapsed in his chair.

Tammie raced to the man’s side, yelled for her daughter to get her bag out of the car, and began trying to move the heavyset man to the floor. Marty Benson, who’d been trained in CPR through his job at a nuclear power plant, walked into the store at the same time. And a change of plans had steered Gordon Ross, also trained in CPR, into the store that day.

The two men managed to get the victim, Warren Bessling, onto the floor and began CPR. Tammie’s daughter arrived with the AED Plus^® automated external defibrillator from her mother’s car. As soon as Tammie set up the unit, the AED Plus advised her to administer a shock.

“I thought he was dead when I first saw him,” said Tammie. “We did CPR and followed the AED’s instructions for what seemed like forever. But by the time the paramedics arrived, Warren’s eyes had started to focus and he could tell us his name.” He was transported to Park Ridge Hospital where he underwent open heart surgery. Today he says he’s very mindful of nutrition and conscious of his diet.

It was a bit of a miracle that Warren was even in the Books-a-Million store at the time of his sudden cardiac arrest. If he hadn’t made that stop, he probably would have arrested during his drive home to the mountains, a good 30 minutes away along a winding road with a sharp drop-off.