(TimesDaily) – Shane Mansell was taking a break in the middle of the weigh-ins at last week’s High School Fishing Association’s competition on Lake Guntersville.
Suddenly, someone ran up to him, telling him that one of the contestant’s father was having a heart attack.
Being a trained emergency medical technician, the firefighter did what he does best – ran to help.
Mansell, who was at the tournament with his son, saw the man, Phil Powell, start turning blue in the face, and “he just went out.”
“I checked his pulse, he didn’t have one. I pulled him out of the chair and started doing chest compressions on him,” Mansell said.
While he was working on Powell, a doctor who was in the park, came over to help as Mansell continued the chest compression until park rangers arrived.
With still no pulse, the rangers used an automated external defibrillator and “shocked him once, and he came back,” Mansell said.
He said shortly afterward, paramedics arrived along with an air ambulance. When they left, Powell was sitting up, talking.
“They flew him to Huntsville Hospital, and I went by there Saturday night,” said Mansell. “He was sitting up in the (emergency room). I was glad he was doing so well.”
Powell, who is from Alabaster, was at the fishing tournament to watch his 14-year-old son, Tyler, compete.
“It was the first tournament we had been to,” Powell said.
He said there is no doubt in his mind, if not for the quick action by Mansell he would not be living today.
“I died, my heart stopped. Shane kept my blood pumping,” Powell said. “I can’t image doing what he did in that situation. He did what he was trained to do.”
Powell had a heart attack over a year ago, but for the last few weeks he said he had been feeling physically “great.”
“I had just set up a tent, had the grill going, and had hot dogs on,” he said. “The last thing I remember before I died was telling a friend to get some help. I thank God he got Shane.”
