Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., was in the right place at the right time on Tuesday morning.
Roe, a retired obstetrician/gynecologist, was in the Charlotte, N.C., airport en route to Washington when he heard a call right out of a television drama: “Is anybody here a doctor? There’s a gentleman who just collapsed.”
“When I got there, he wasn’t breathing,” Roe told The Daily Caller. “I think there was another doctor there, but we didn’t really have a chance to introduce ourselves. I just said, ‘I’m Dr. Roe, so and so,’ and then we just dived on top of the guy and started giving him CPR.”
Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., was with Roe. “I bet the guy wasn’t down probably 30 seconds before Phil was taking care of him. They gave him CPR for like 5 or 6 minutes. They pumped his chest pretty good. It was work. It was pretty intimidating to watch,” Mulvaney said.
Roe and the other medical professional kept blood flowing to the man’s brain until paramedics arrived with an automated external defibrillator.
“They work great and we just had to defibrillate him once, which is good,” said Roe, who became a doctor 41 years ago.
“I don’t know if he has ever done this before in public, but he looked as though he’d done it about a thousand times,” Mulvaney said. “It was impressive to watch.”
Roe said he hopes the man will be all right. “I gave the police officer my card and asked him would he please call me back and let me know how the man is,” Roe said. “So, he called me and said they got him to the hospital and they think he’s going to make it .”
The second-best part? US Airways held Roe’s flight for him.
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