Earlier this month, a homeless man saved the life of a trucker who experienced a medical emergency on the road.
Paul Bristol was driving his tractor trailer south on Interstate 89 near exit 12 in Williston, Vermont at approximately 1:25 p.m. when he suffered a heart attack, leaving him incapacitated.
According to the Burlington Free Press, the semi truck drifted into the left lane and scraped along the concrete guardrail for approximately 300 feet.
Fortunately, the truck came to a stop on its own 10 feet before the guard rail ended, saving Bristol from rolling into the median ditch.
James Pocock, a now homeless ex-firefighter, and EMT had been living in the woods near exit 12 for several months when he saw the truck come to a bumpy, tumultuous halt.
Pocock climbed the cab of the truck and saw Bristol had fallen between the seats and was struggling to breathe.
Pocock ran towards the traffic, trying to get someone to stop and help.
“That’s when these two country boys, 19 or 20, came out of nowhere,” said Pocock in an interview.
“They said, ‘What do you need?’ I said, ‘He needs to come out!’ They grabbed him and four seconds later he was out. I don’t know who they were, but they had a big part in saving his life,” Pocock continued.
“I remember looking down into his throat, hearing his last breath,” recalled Pocock. Bristol’s pulse had stopped.
Pocock then began performing CPR and mouth to mouth resuscitation while other good samaritans assisted with compressing Bristol’s chest.
These efforts prevented Bristol from suffering any sort of brain damage while his body lay pulseless.
“He was blue,” Pocock recalled. “That scared me.”
The fire department arrived within four minutes of receiving an emergency call and took over for Pocock.
Bristol was rushed to the hospital where he received six stents in his blocked arteries.
Pocock had been a CPR instructor, firefighter, and EMT in California in the past, but that was 20 years ago.
The two men who helped pull Bristol from the wrecked truck have still not come forward.
Now, just a month after the May 4th accident, James Pocock and Paul Bristol stand together smiling at the Williston Fire Department as Pocock receives a medal of honor from the Fire Chief and a plaque is hung on the fire station wall in memory of his heroic actions.
“We’re all friends… now,” Bristol confirmed. “We talk to him all the time.”
Bristol’s family has bought Pocock supplies for his camp to help him along, but Pocock remains homeless, continuing to live in the woods near exit 12.
Local resident Lynnea Nichols believes Pocock could qualify for governmental aid and has set up a GoFundMe .
She plans to use the money to help get Pocock onto his feet and into affordable housing via government programs.
“If we can’t hit that goal, then I will make sure he gets the necessities and is eating every day,” Nichols concluded.
As of 11:40 a.m. today, Nichols has raised over $5000 for Pocock.
“One action at one moment in time has had a ripple effect on everybody in this room,” said Williston Fire Department Public Information Officer Prescott Nadeau.
“James, your actions were incredibly important. [They] will forever be remembered,” Nadeau concluded.
Check out the touching interview and ceremony here.
