RED CROSS HONORS LIFESAVING EFFORT

When Sharon Spence, 26, was in ninth grade, she took a Red Cross cardiopulmonary recusitation training course. In July she put that CPR training to good use when she helped save the life of a customer stricken with a heart attack at the fast-food restaurant where she worked in Fenton.

On Wednesday Spence, who now works at Hardee's, 2115 William, received an American Red Cross life saving certificate for "utilizing life-saving skills to save a human life." The presentation was made by Kim Groves, chapter chairperson of the Cape Girardeau chapter of the American Red Cross.

"This certificate gives recognition for the extraordinary action Sharon took to help save a life," said Mary Burton, local Red Cross executive director.

Spence, who is originally from Poplar Bluff, recalled the incident at Fenton.

She said: "I have regular customers who come in every morning and sit together in the back area for breakfast. On this particular morning one of them came up front and told me to call 911, that there was an emergency. All of them like to joke a lot, so I wasn't sure at first, but he looked at me and said, `This is no joke.'"

After calling 911 for help, Spence went to the back table in the restaurant and found one of her longtime customers on the floor, unconscious, not breathing and in full cardiac arrest.

"He was all blue and cold," said Spence. "Someone had already started CPR, so I told him I would help with compressions for a while to give his arms a rest."

Spence continued to assist with CPR until a rescue squad and ambulance paramedics arrived.

As she recalled her first CPR maneuver on a human, Spence said: "It was real scary. I was crying afterwards because I wasn't sure if I had done the right thing, plus he was a very special customer to me. I got to know him real well because he came in every morning."

Some time later, the victim, who was revived and recovered from the heart attack, returned to the restaurant with is wife to thank Spence and the others who worked to keep him alive.

"I didn't even know he knew I had helped," Spence said. "It was a surprise to me," said Spence. "But it was neat to know that what I did helped save his life."

Spence said she wants to become an emergency medical technician paramedic. When not working at her full-time job at Hardee's, Spence is busy studying her emergency medical service textbooks. She plans to enter paramedic training at the Cape Girardeau Vocational-Technical School in January.

"When I graduated from high school, I was interested in emergency medical services, but I was too afraid of it; the sight of blood and injured people and all that," she explained. "But I have several friends in Poplar Bluff who are paramedics with the ambulance service there. The more I talked to them about their work, the more I was drawn to it."