Bartender saves customer’s life after he loses consciousness

NEW FRANKLIN, Ohio (WEWS) - A day of golf with a group of friends took a turn for the worse in Ohio until a bartender with some life-saving skills stepped in.

Friday golf outings are a tradition for Sean Cavanaugh.

“We’ve been doing it for 25 years for the Stress Free Friday League,” he said.

Last Friday’s outing on the Turkey Foot Lake Golf Links started on a high note. “Beautiful day. Couldn’t have played any better. Actually had a lot of fun,” Cavanaugh said.

After the round Cavanaugh and his group did what they normally do, went across the street to Upper Deck Bar and Grill for a bite to eat. But things quickly took a turn.

“I started feeling dizzy, you know,” Cavanaugh said. “And all of a sudden, I was thinking to myself, ‘Whoa, I’m like, really feeling lightheaded.’ And next thing I thought I was going to lay my head down on the, on my arms and the light. The next was, you know, not a good thing.”

“I got a phone call from the manager, and I said, ‘What’s going on? What happened?’” said Timothy Adkins, owner of the Upper Deck. “And he goes, ‘You’re not going to believe this. He said some guy like fell over at the table and had no pulse.”

A caller told 911, “I have a gentleman sitting at one of the tables here. He passed out. His friends are with him. He’s not waking up.”

“His friends started yelling, ‘You call 911,” said bartender Taylor Lyn Kemerer. “And that’s when I jumped into action and went over to see what was wrong.”

She said she has lived through tragedy before.

“Seven years ago, my father passed of a massive heart attack in front of my mother and I, and when that happened seven years ago, that was kind of my calling that I know that I want to go into a medical profession and help people,” Kemerer said.

She said she always stays up to date on her CPR certification. So last Friday, early to her shift and in the right place at the right time, she rushed over to assist.

“I couldn’t find a pulse whatsoever,” Kemerer said. “And then I tried for about a minute and a half to see if I could get a pulse out of him. And then when I determined that I couldn’t get a pulse, that’s when I yelled at his golfer buds to get him on the ground to start CPR.”

The moment was a flashback to the tragedy with her father.

“He was blue in the face, and I was just, I was terrified that he was about to have a heart attack and kind of relive what I lived through seven years ago,” Kemerer said.

But this time the ending was different.

“Next thing, you know, he took a breath, his eyes started to flutter and the color started coming back to his face,” Adkins said.

Cavanaugh was taken to the hospital, treated and discharged. A few days later, he returned to Upper Deck and met Kemerer. It was a moment he’ll never forget.

“When we were talking, she told me that of all things, you won’t believe this. And I said, ‘What’s that?’ And she said that I looked exactly like her dad,” he said.

After giving him a new lease on life. Cavanaugh said thank you to Kemerer the only way he knew how.

“He came back on Wednesday, and he actually gave me this pin. And it’s just a cross with an angel, and he goes, ‘We’re bonded for life,’” she said.

“I just wanted to tell her thanks, you know, and I don’t know that, you know, I have a good feeling that the guy upstairs took good care of me, and he put her in my life,” Cavanaugh said. “I bought her a little angel pin that said guidance on it because I think she was guided to take care of me and be in the right spot at the right time.”

The two now share a connection that will last a lifetime.

“I will always thank my lucky stars for her,” he said.

Copyright 2023 WEWS via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved.