Quick-Thinking Employee Saves Co-Worker’s Life

Talk about being in the right place at the right time. 

Don Guerra is lucky to be alive after he went into cardiac arrest while working at the Madison Avenue Repair Shop last Wednesday afternoon.

It was the quick-thinking of his co-worker Spencer Knapp that saved his life.

It also didn’t hurt that the headquarters is right across the street.

“He started making sort of a snoring noise,” recalls Knapp, whose father owns the full-service gas station. “I looked over, he had his head down. I looked away and looked back and he was on the floor.”

Another employee called 911, while Knapp bolted across the street.

“He wasn’t breathing,” Knapp said. “They were able to get him going again in the ambulance. If I hadn’t gone over (to the fire department), he might not have made it.”

Guerra, who has worked at the station for 25 years, was taken to .

Lakewood Fire Marshal was the first on the scene and began performing CPR. 

He said the “whole cavalry” followed.

Dunphy said that Guerra is lucky to be alive.

“That’s how life works out sometimes,” Dunphy said. “For that guy, it was being at the right place at the right time — and having good neighbors. Spencer did a great job at reacting right away.”

Guerra, the service manager at the station, is recovering at Fairview Hospital and could not be reached for this story.

Knapp said he’s talked to Guerra each day since the incident, but with the lack of oxygen to his brain, Guerra has suffered some minor short-term memory loss.

“He still wants to do payroll,” Knapp said. “We’re hoping he makes a full recovery.

“I’m just so glad he’s alive.”