Keith McVey lives in Akron, Ohio. He's 53 years old and is a mailman. Everyone in Akron knows him. Recently, he saved the life of another person for the third time in
his
life.
While delivering the mail, he noticed a panicked man trying to revive his unconscious friend at the back of a pickup.
"He said his buddy wasn't breathing,"
explained McVey.
"I thought, well, let's see what's going on. Sometimes you just have to act."
While trained in CPR, McVey had never actually performed it before. He began chest compressions for several minutes, waiting for both a pulse and the paramedics. The unconscious man regained a pulse, the paramedics arrived, and what did McVey do? Not go home; not go to the local TV station to become a star; not hang around for applause.
No....he picked up his mailbag and continued his deliveries.
Why?
"...if I don't finish up, they'd have to take all my mail back,"
he explained.
"I didn't want anybody to have to pick up my slack."
I am not minimizing the CPR part at all - that was truly lifesaving. I am maximizing the humble sense of responsibility that never left his mind. He was going to finish his route, because it was his job and he didn't want to burden or inconvenience someone else. That is the truly heroic part for me. No arrogance, no sense of entitlement, no grabbing at any opportunity to get out of work.
That's a true hero....and a REAL man.
