Danyelle Khmara
The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson
A Tucson man who received national attention after saving a woman’s life with CPR he learned from the TV show ‘The Office” finally met the woman he saved— on national television.
Only identified as Carla, the woman wiped away tears during an April appearance on Steve Harvey’s talk show after an emotional hug between her and Cross Scott, the lead shop technician at Jack Furrier Tire & Auto Care on South Sixth Avenue and East Valencia Road in Tucson.
Scott was test-driving a customer’s car on Jan. 11 when he saw a white sedan with its hazard lights blinking in a dirt pull-off by Sixth Avenue and Drexel Road. The then 21-year-old, who always pulls over when he sees a lady having car trouble, stopped to see if the woman was all right.
When he saw Carla was slumped over her steering wheel and her lips were blue, he broke a back window of her car, opened her door and began giving her CPR.
Except Scott had never taken a CPR class. The only reference he had for how it’s done was an episode of The Office, in which the characters sing The the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive” while practicing chest compressions during a CPR class. Luckily, that song does have the correct rhythm for proper CPR chest compressions.
The CPR worked, and Carla began to breathe again. Shortly after, paramedics and Carla’s daughter arrived, and Scott went back to work. At the end of his work day, he went by the hospital to check on the woman he only knew as Carla, but she had already been released.
After the Arizona Daily Star wrote about the story on Jan. 25, it went viral, getting picked up by news outlets nationwide and even internationally. Scott said he turned down many requests for interviews, saying he only did what anyone would have done. It wasn’t until Scott appeared on Steve TV Show this month that he met Carla face to face.
With her daughter next to her, translating from Spanish, Carla told Scott thanks to him, she’s still alive.
“I’m always going to be thankful for what you did,” she said. “And you will always be in my prayers.”
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©2019 The Arizona Daily Star (Tucson, Ariz.)