Streator bartender/waitress recognized for using CPR to save co-worker

“I just did what I was trained to do. I just reacted.”

—  Callie Simpson

Callie Simpson, a bartender/waitress at Carbo’s Sports Bar in Streator, helped save the life of a co-worker late last year, performing the chest compressions commonly associated with cardiopulmonary resuscitation — better known as CPR — until paramedics and firefighters arrived on the scene to take over.

On Monday, she was honored for her quick-thinking heroism with Advanced Medical Transport’s Community Resuscitation Award — although all she did, in her opinion, was the right thing when she was in the right place at the right time.

“It’s nice to be recognized for something I did,” Simpson said, “but to me, I just did what I was trained to do. I just reacted.

“I’d like to think that everybody would do that.”

A former secretary in a hospital radiology department, Simpson had some training in emergency situations, such as the one she encountered at Carbo’s on Nov. 30 when a co-worker suffered a sudden cardiac arrest.

“He wasn’t feeling well, and [Carbo’s owner Dennis Carbone] asked me to check on him, make sure he was OK,” Simpson said. “He was in the bathroom, and I asked if he was OK, and he said he was, but I didn’t believe him ... and then I heard him fall.”

Not able to get a response, Simpson asked Carbone to help her with the locked door. He was able to force his way in, and Simpson said she found her ailing co-worker on the bathroom floor, unresponsive, not breathing and without a pulse.

Simpson began administering chest compressions while another co-worker called 911.

“I just kept doing compressions and didn’t stop,” Simpson said. “I kept yelling his name, but I wasn’t getting any response. Then [the paramedics and firefighters] got here, and I stepped back and let them do their job.”

Shannan Cameron and her Advanced Medical Transport co-worker — and daughter –—Alexandrea Smith soon arrived on scene, as did first responders from the Streator Fire Department.

“When I got here with all of my equipment and my partner, [Simpson] was on the floor doing CPR,” Cameron said. “I said, ‘OK, you can move now,’ and we started our procedures of getting a breathing tube in, IVs, we shocked him right away and the fire department came in and took over my CPR part.

“Her being here and doing what she did, I can honestly say he may not have made it. She was quick on the thought and got in there and started pumping his chest. That’s the No. 1 thing we really go for — getting that chest going and keeping the blood going to the brain.”

It made all the difference.

The certificate presented Monday to Simpson reads:

“Presented to Callie Simpson, with great appreciation, for extraordinary lifesaving efforts rendered in an emergency situation. In commendation of selfless acts of heroism that better the outcome of another person, AMT awards this honor to the above named individual.”

In 2020, Josh Bradshaw, community resource manager at Advanced Medical Transport, said AMT and the Streator Fire Department provided care for 20 cardiac arrest patients. Of them, five patients achieved return of spontaneous circulation and were discharged home after resuscitative care for a discharge rate of 25%.

The national average for discharged patients post-cardiac arrest is 8.5%, putting Streator at almost three times the national average.

“A person when they’re in cardiac arrest, the chances of reviving them decrease by 10% for every minute that goes by where somebody doesn’t do something — i.e., giving chest compressions. So, those initial minutes are really critical,” Bradshaw said.

“What Callie did was jump right in there and take care of the person in need of help and, we believe, save his life. That’s why we’re all here today.

“We can protect our neighbors and our friends and family by learning CPR and being confident enough to jump in and do it.”

Her co-worker still is recovering, Simpson said.

“He’s doing well,” she said. “I’ve talked to him on the phone but haven’t seen him in person, but I’ve talked to him and his family, and that’s definitely great to hear.”