January 25, 2015 started like any other Sunday for David Thornhill. The former pastor and missionary woke up, went to church and stopped by Home Depot afterwards for some garden supplies. “It was a normal day,” Thornhill says. “I had no problems, nothing.”
Fast-forward 36 hours and Thornhill was waking up from a medically induced coma after his heart suddenly and inexplicably stopped in the lumber aisle at The Home Depot. Lumber associate Ken Rojas was just a few steps away when it did, and his quick response was the difference between life and death.
The American Red Cross in Colorado Springs recently recognized Rojas as their 2016 Adult Hometown Hero for exemplifying courage, kindness and unselfish character that day.
Rojas was assisting customers when he heard someone scream for help. He turned and saw Thornhill lying face down on the floor.
“I called 911, set my phone down and followed instructions,” explains Rojas. “I got him on his back and checked his pulse. He wasn’t breathing.
Rojas began performing chest compressions until another customer took over and paramedics arrived. Thornhill’s doctor later told him that only five percent of those who have sudden cardiac arrest outside a hospital survive, and those immediate chest compressions were critical.
“I was in the right place at the right time,” Rojas says modestly.
But Thornhill says Rojas’s actions have ripple effects that he’ll never understand.
“All the experiences that I’m going to have that I wouldn’t have had. I’m so thankful,” says Thornhill, a father of eight and grandfather of nine. “Me and my family consider Ken our ‘Hero.’”
Rojas’s story illustrates the importance of CPR training, which he receives every two years as a medical clerk at the U.S. Air Force Academy Hospital.
