NH Liquor Store Clerk Helps Save Customer's Life
NASHUA, NH (CBS) - A clerk at a New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlet in Nashua is being credited with helping to save a life after a customer collapsed on top of a liquor bottle display.
Sean Gerrish, 23, was working at the store on Tuesday when he heard a commotion.
"I heard a crash," said Gerrish. "I saw the gentleman laying down into it."
Gerrish and another customer jumped into action.
"We helped flip him over, and we realized he wasn't breathing, he had turned purple," said Gerrish.
Gerrish called 911, and the dispatcher instructed him to give chest compressions.
"It was my first time, I actually learned listening from the dispatcher on the phone," Gerrish said.
Another customer took over before paramedics arrived. That man's name is John Brunette, according to the Nashua Telegraph.
The victim, 56-year-old Daniel White, known as "Whitey" to his friends and family, suffered a massive heart attack and has now undergone quintuple bypass surgery, according to his daughter.
Kristen White says she is tremendously grateful for Sean's effort.
"It's nice to see good people doing good things," said White. "I think it's a lesson for everybody and you would only hope that if you were faced with that situation you would do exactly what Sean did. I'm sure it was frightening, he's a young kid."
Kristen says her father wants to thank Sean and the others in person for their help.
Mr. White is a trucker who usually transports propane. Family members say it is lucky the heart attack happened in the store, rather than on the road.
White also lives alone, so if it had happened at home there might not have been anybody to help.
The local ambulance company awarded Sean a life-saving pin.
"That could have been my dad or my brother."
