Off-duty EMT helps save victim suffering cardiac arrest after crash in Kingwood

ATASCOCITA, Texas (KTRK) -- An off-duty EMT was at the right place at the right time on his drive home on Wednesday when he came upon a car crash along Hwy 59 in the Kingwood area.

Dustin Wood's heroic actions at the scene are what Atascocita Fire say helped saved the life of a man who went into cardiac arrest after a crash.

Wood says he was on his normal route home when he came across the crash.

"As I got closer, I noticed a middle-aged man laying on the concrete," Wood said.

Initially, Wood said he couldn't get to the man, but after taking some loops around the area, he was able to reach him and quickly jumped into action.

"I noticed bystanders were doing CPR at that point," Wood said. "I have a department-issued jump bag and AED [ an automated external defibrillator], immediately grabbed that and ran to the side of the patient."

Wood said he instructed the bystanders to keep doing CPR while he applied the AED to the man. After several attempts, Wood said they were able to get a strong pulse from the man.

"Around that time, as HFD pulled up, we were just starting another analyzing and the firefighter on scene was able to detect a strong pulse," Wood said. "So we stopped decompressions and just provided rescue breaths."

Wood says rescue breaths were provided to the man, who couldn't breathe on his own until an ambulance arrived.

"By the time we had got him on the stretcher and into the ambulance, he had actually woken up and just looking around, wondering what had happened," Wood said.

The cause of the crash and the condition of the victim remain unknown. But the man, whose identity has not been released, was then taken to the hospital.

Wood, who also credits the bystanders who performed CPR on the man, says learning CPR is a "valuable skill that can save someone's life when they need it."