Rutter's Employees, Patron and Police Help Save Man's Life

YORK, Pa. -- An employee at the Rutter's Farm Store in Manchester Township, Penn., performed life-saving CPR on a man who had stopped breathing in the store's parking lot.

Tabatha Cobb, an employee at the Rutter's since September, was working on the afternoon of Nov. 19 in the store's deli when a man came in, shouting that his friend, who was in a car outside, had stopped breathing.

Cobb, who learned CPR when her daughter spent some time in a neonatal intensive care unit after birth, and a store patron ran out to the parking lot and performed chest compressions on the man, according to a report by the York Daily Record.Another Rutter's employee helped get the man out of his car.

"The first thing you do is check the carotid artery -- he had a weak heartbeat," Cobb told the news outlet. "His eyes, he had no reaction; he was losing color."

At one point, Cobb checked for a pulse and tested the man's eye reaction and could detect no heartbeat. At that point, Northern York County Regional Police Officer Jason Greco arrived and placed a rescue breathing mask over the man's face, according to the report.

"Greco performed rescue breathing, while the woman continued with the chest compressions," according to a Northern Regional news release.

With Greco breathing, it took only about four chest compressions before the man sat up, Cobb said, adding, "It was like life just came into his body. Pretty weird. It was something you'd see in a movie." Cobb said he gave her a good feeling to help someone in need.

Scott Hartman, Rutter's president and CEO, said last week, "It makes you proud. . . . It's rewarding to know that our folks will help when people are in need."