Man Uses CPR in Grocery Store to Help Save Life

When a man went into cardiac arrest earlier this week in a Norman grocery store, a fellow shopper came to his rescue. Thursday, the two were able to meet each other.

Thursday, July 16th 2009, 8:50 pm

By: News 9


By Gan Matthews, NEWS 9

NORMAN, Oklahoma -- When a man went into cardiac arrest earlier this week in a Norman grocery store, a fellow shopper came to his rescue. Thursday, the two were able to meet each other.

Former District Attorney, former Cleveland County Judge Preston Trimble is recovering in the cardiac care unit at Norman Regional Hospital. But he can't remember how he got there.

"I was going to Homeland to get some articles for Patty (Trimble's wife), and that's the last I remember until I woke up in the ER room," said Preston Trimble.

Luckily for the former judge, someone trained in CPR was shopping at the Homeland store last Monday. Bill Dowding was looking for chicken breasts when he saw Trimble collapse.

"We started to proceed doing mouth to mouth CPR, taking his tie off. He had a really tight tie around his neck, and I thought that was maybe causing us not to succeed on that," Bill Dowding said.

First responders arrived two minutes later to finish what Dowding had started. He feels he didn't contribute much, but the paramedics disagree.

"What he did was to buy time for all of us to come and be able to do what we did. Without those efforts, the outcome might have been very vastly different," said EMSTAT paramedic Eddie Sims.

"I think it was a miracle that that man was there at that Homeland at that time," said Preston Trimble's wife Patty.

Thursday morning Dowding and Trimble finally got introduced. Trimble said he will be forever grateful.

"Whatever he does in the future, he's allowed me to have a future," Trimble said.

Despite Trimble's praise, Dowding doesn't think he's a hero. He was just in the right place at the right time.

"Heroes are the paramedics. That's what they do for a living on a daily basis," Dowding said.

Bill Dowding has invited Preston Trimble to go fishing with him when he gets well.

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