Illinois Tollway first-aid training helps M-1 mechanic save a life
Illinois Tollway mechanic Bob Cowgill was only looking to have some fun and possibly win a few dollars when he went out in October to play Bingo.
Instead, Cowgill ended up saving a man’s life when he was abruptly confronted by a medical emergency while playing in his weekly Bingo match at a community center in Orland Park.
“I looked up, saw one of the workers come through the doorway in obvious distress,” recalled Cowgill, 59, who works at the Alsip (M-1) maintenance site. “When you see it, you know it was distress.”
Cowgill jumped out of his chair and rushed over to the man just as he collapsed to his knees, wheezing as his face turned purple.
Thanks to first-aid training he had received from the Tollway, Cowgill quickly recognized the man was choking--and because of that training, he knew how to help.
“I lifted him up, got him back on his feet, turned him around and started the Heimlich (maneuver),” Cowgill said.
Wrapping his arms around the man’s abdomen, Cowgill forcefully squeezing upward with his hands to exert pressure on the man’s diaphragm to force air out of his lungs in an attempt to clear the obstruction blocking his throat.
Cowgill was so focused on trying to save the man, he didn’t realize he had dislodged the obstruction until the man suddenly spoke to him.
“He talked to me, he told me ‘OK, OK,’” Cowgill recounted. “That’s when I realized—'you can talk, you’re OK now.’”
Cowgill helped the man to a chair, then took a minute to take a deep breath himself and process what had just happened.
What he realized shortly after the incident was that Tollway-provided first-aid training he’s taken routinely since he started at the agency 10 years ago had allowed him to save a life.
The one-day training offered to all employees includes instruction in basic first aid, doing CPR, using an AED, and learning when and how to use the Heimlich maneuver to save someone who’s choking.
“If it wasn’t for this training, I wouldn’t have been the one jumping up and running over there,” Cowgill said, estimating he’s taken the first-aid training five times. “I knew that I had some training, some background and I had some ability to help. It turned out my training was enough to save this man.”
Chris Foli, the Tollway’s Health and Safety Manager, said that’s the goal of the training she offers—to allow Tollway employees to jump into emergency situations wherever they occur and provide assistance.
“It’s making sure that our employees are up on the latest training out there,” Foli said. “A lot of times, as I tell them in class, is that you probably won’t use it at the Tollway, you’ll use it outside the Tollway, maybe for a family member, a friend or maybe a complete stranger because you just happen to be there and you can just step in and help.”
Cowgill contacted her later to describe the incident and tell her how helpful her training had been.
“That makes me feel good for a lot of reasons, knowing that they’re listening and hearing the message and participating and taking it with them and being able to jump into a situation like that,” said Foli, who has heard back from other employees over the years who used their first-aid training to help out in an emergency.
Afterwards, the crowd in the hall applauded him for his rescue, Cowgill said, and the man he had saved—a worker who had been taking a break in another room when he started choking on his dinner—thanked him profusely.
“He was very grateful that I jumped up and did that,” Cowgill said, recalling that he texted the man the next day to make sure he hadn’t accidentally bruised him while performing the Heimlich maneuver.
“He replied ‘Doing just fine. No problem at all. Thank you so much,’” Cowgill said. “It feels good now, knowing I have a friend now who’s still with us and was able to go to his family that night.”
Without his first-aid training, “it could’ve been a completely different outlook,” he said. “It was the training that I got here (at the Tollway) that gave me the confidence and the ability to jump up when necessary and address the situation.”
After the emergency, Cowgill returned to his Bingo cards and kept playing.
While he didn’t hit any Bingo jackpots, he said he still felt like a winner that night.
“I won by saving a life,” Cowgill said.