Employee Hears Noise, Then Finds Coworker on the Ground. Daughter Says Her Dad Wouldn’t Have Lived Without Him

“He’s a great friend,” Jim Schroeder said of the colleague who saved his life

NEED TO KNOW

• Jerry Breen was just publicly honored for saving his colleague last fall
• “Jerry’s courage and willingness to act embody everything we are talking about this Heart Month: YOU are the first responder until help arrives,” the American Heart Association wrote in a statement
• “He’s a great friend,” said survivor Jim Schroeder

A Lowe’s employee is being publicly praised after he rushed to save his coworker, who collapsed at a store last fall.

On Wednesday, Feb. 11, Jerry Breen, an associate at Lowe’s in Orchard Park, New York, received a HeartSaver Hero Award for saving his colleague Jim Schroeder by performing CPR.

“Jerry’s courage and willingness to act embody everything we are talking about this Heart Month: YOU are the first responder until help arrives,” the American Heart Association wrote in a statement on social media. “We hope to continue empowering everyday people to step in with confidence when seconds matter.”

Last November, Schroeder was in a “great mood” when he arrived for his four-hour shift at Lowe’s, where he mixes paint, CBS affiliate WIVB reported. When he arrived, Breen asked Schroeder to work in aisle seven.

“ ‘I’ll be around the corner,’ ” Schroeder recalled his colleague telling him. 

“Good thing he was, because it wasn’t 15 minutes after that I hit the floor,” Schroeder continued, according to the outlet. 

Moments later, Breen heard a noise and went to investigate. That’s when he found Schroeder on the ground. 

"I just had to do something, and he seemed to be struggling, so CPR seemed to be the first thing to do," Breen recalled at the award ceremony, according to the outlet.

While Breen performed CPR another employee called 911. 

“Without Jerry’s quick response doing the CPR, all of the doctors and the nurses know that we wouldn’t have been able to save him,” said Schroeder’s daughter, Amanda Hirsch, according to WIVB, “in the ambulance and on the way, it was the CPR that really kept him alive.”

Now fully recovered, Schroeder thanked Breen for his heroic act.

“He’s a great friend,” he said.

Each year in the United States, there are more than 357,000 cardiac arrests that occur outside of a hospital. Of those incidents, nearly 90% are fatal, according to the American Heart Association. Research suggests that patients who receive immediate CPR have double to triple the odds of surviving compared to people who don’t receive such assistance. 

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Following the award ceremony on Wednesday, which was held at the Lowe’s store, employees learned how to perform hands-only CPR “to make sure they are prepared to save a life,” the agency said.

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