MBTA Electricians Resuscitate Man Who Collapsed At Government Center Station

BOSTON (CBS) – Three MBTA electricians and a physician assistant rushed to save a man who collapsed at Government Center Station Thursday morning.

With the help of an automated defibrillator and their training, the man was conscious when he left for the hospital.

"That guy is alive today because of how we were trained," said MBTA electrician Kevin O'Brien.

Dolly Arjun, a physician assistant, first discovered the man and shouted for someone to call 911. "He looked like he wasn't conscious," Arjun told WBZ-TV. "Those first minutes are really critical. He looked quite pale to me and he was almost looking blueish as well."

From routine electrical work to a life or death test; the man had collapsed without a pulse on the platform at Government Center Station. Three MBTA electricians knew they had no time to waste.

"We didn't have to say 'you do this, you do this,'" said MBTA electrician Richard Ryan. "Everyone knew what to do. If someone wasn't giving chest compressions, the other guy did it."

"They always use the song 'Staying Alive' to do your chest compression rates," said O'Brien. "So I'm singing the song and counting and I said this is somebody's father and we're going to get him out of here."

The workers had those life-saving skills to reach for thanks to years of training from the MBTA and their Local 103 union. And they actually reached for their real tools as well.

"Being an electrician we always carry a knife," O'Brien said. "Cut the shirt right off the guy, so when he came down with his AED the paddles went right on."

By the time paramedics arrived to rush the man to the hospital, he was conscious and breathing. All thanks to the three underground heroes.

"You don't know what any day at the T is going to be," said MBTA electrician Edward Reynolds. "You have to deal with the public, a lot of people, personalities and situations."

"Everything went so well, how can you not be proud?" said Ryan.

The patient was listed in critical condition at Massachusetts General Hospital Friday morning.