Tracy Lehr
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — On her way to a wine tasting in the Santa Ynez Valley Saturday afternoon, Tina Ballue saw a man in need of help near a bus stop on Calle Real.
Ballue pulled over and offered assistance.
“When I got out of the car and asked, ‘What do you need?’ the gentleman beside the man who was unconscious said, ‘I don’t know—CPR. I need help with CPR,’” Ballue said.
Ballue had recently completed a CPR course with her coworkers at Safety Matters in Santa Barbara.
“I’m not sure I would have felt comfortable even stopping the car to help if I didn’t have that training,” she said.
She checked the man’s vital signs and airways between chest compressions, keeping rhythm by singing the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive,” as she had been taught in class.
“We could see as I was doing compressions, he didn’t react the first two times,” Ballue said.
Duane Henry recorded video of the scene, which has since been viewed thousands of times online.
“The idea is to keep the heart moving, blood pumping and the brain getting oxygen,” Ballue said. “CPR doesn’t always require mouth-to-mouth. I closed the nostrils to open the airway and checked the mouth to make sure it was clear.”
The man regained consciousness after the third round of compressions.
At least one viewer of the video questioned whether the man may have needed Narcan. Ballue said she didn’t know.
“I’m not educated enough to say, but I can tell you he needed the support of the people around him once he was conscious,” she said.
Ballue is trained in Narcan use but didn’t have the nasal spray with her at the time.
“I took the course at Unity Shoppe with my Rotary,” she said. “We’re on a mission to make sure everyone is trained in Narcan use, CPR and first aid.”
Ballue said she noticed pill bottles among the man’s belongings and asked if there were any drugs first responders should know about. The man said no.
Her CPR instructor, Justin Haagen of Safety Matters, said it doesn’t matter why someone is unresponsive—what matters is helping them.
“Whenever I hear about something like this, I create a Good Samaritan award,” Haagen said. “I have one for Tina, and I’ll give it to her when the time is right at her workplace.”
Santa Barbara City firefighter Jason Faanes emphasized the importance of calling 911 immediately or asking someone else to do so.
“Early chest compressions and CPR can increase the survival rate by two to three times,” Faanes said.
Both firefighters and an AMR ambulance responded to the emergency.
Faanes said the American Heart Association has an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival guide, which includes six steps—among them, early CPR with a focus on chest compressions.
He said chest compressions should continue until first responders arrive.
Ballue, who works at Domestic Violence Solutions in Santa Barbara, said she wanted to treat the man with compassion and dignity.
“We really poured words of encouragement and love into him,” she said. “I told him, ‘We’re so glad you’re still with us today. You are loved, you are cherished.’ He started to cry and looked at me and said, ‘Can I have a hug?’”
They hugged but didn’t exchange names or contact information.
If the video encourages just one person to learn CPR, Ballue said, it was worth sharing.
“I want people to be inspired to get trained so they feel empowered in an emergency,” she said. “One day you might be at the store or get out of your car and know what to do.”
Safety Matters offers CPR courses that can be completed in a single day. A hands-only class is free, and a full certification course costs about $80 and takes four hours. The certification is valid for two years.
“You can learn CPR and how to use an automated external defibrillator, or AED,” Haagen said.
The training, he added, builds the confidence needed to save the life of a loved one—or even a complete stranger.
For more information about CPR classes visit CPRtrainingsb.com.
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