Taco Bell employee in Tennessee saved a man’s life after he passed out in the drive-thru
Sonja Frazier, an employee at the Taco Bell in Clarksville, Tennessee, performed CPR on the man who passed out in a Taco Bell drive-thru
[Aug. 22, 2020: Joshua Shavit]
A Taco Bell employee in Tennessee is being hailed a hero for saving a man's life after he passed out in the drive-thru.
Sonja Frazier, 37, was working her usual shift as the night shift manager at a Taco Bell restaurant in Clarksville, Tennessee, last Wednesday when she and two co-workers noticed the drive-thru line was dead stopped.
"One of my managers looked on the camera and saw a car was parked the wrong way," Frazier told Clarksville Now. "It looked like it’d rolled into the drive-thru line and was blocking it.”
Jonathan, one of Frazier's co-workers, ran outside to investigate and discovered a man leaned over in the driver seat of his van. As Frazier rushed out to help, she told another employee to call the ambulance.
“We opened the door and he was blue,” she told the outlet. “I told Jonathan to park the car, and we both pulled him out and put him on the ground. I said to put him on his left side. His hands and fingertips were blue. I found a pulse, but it was real vague.”
Frazier immediately flipped him over and began performing CPR while talking to the man and telling him everything was going to be okay. After approximately 11 minutes of CPR, first responders arrived at the scene and took over.
"I saw him grab one of their arms when they were lifting him up in the stretcher and that was when I knew he would be okay," Frazier said. "I don't look at myself as a hero. This is what I was supposed to do. It doesn't matter who he was or what skin color he had. I knew I was there to save his life. But it really was overwhelming emotionally.
Frazier said that she previously worked as a home healthcare worker for six years and had taken multiple first-aid courses for certification, and so she began giving the man CPR as they waited for the ambulance.
"I have been really scared about Covid-19," Frazier said. "My preexisting condition can be deadly. But that never crossed my mind. It really didn't. All that mattered to me was saving that man's life. I wasn't going to leave him."
After the incident, Frazier, who knew the man's name from his license, found him on Facebook and sent him a message to make sure he was okay.
"I was never going to forget his face or his name," she said. "I sent him a message telling him who I am, and he responded thanking me for saving his life and asking me how he could repay me. I told him knowing he was okay was enough repayment for me."
The man, who told Frazier he wanted to stay anonymous, promised her they would someday meet again in person.
Frazier hopes her story will encourage everyone to take a first aid class to learn CPR in case a loved one or a stranger needs help.
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