On Feb. 14, a few women at Thompson Middle School, there to see a student performance of “Guys and Dolls” found themselves thrust into life-saving roles. A woman, also there to view the performance, had a heart attack. Regional Paramedical Service Operations Manager Audrey Kimbrough and Shelby Baptist Medical Center emergency room nurses Leann Brown and Robin Anderton were there to take charge of the situation.

Thankfully, Kimbrough, Brown and Anderton were able to care for the woman and prep her for the Alabaster Fire Department medical team that arrived minutes later. Kimbrough, Brown and Anderton’s care may have been what kept the woman from dying as she lay there, waiting for the paramedics to arrive. She is now recovering and has started talking again, a great sign.

As City Editor Neal Wagner reported, Kimbrough said she does not view herself as a hero, and said she and the two nurses did only what they were trained to do.

“Your training kicks in when you are caught off-guard like that. You never expect that to happen at a school or a restaurant,” Kimbrough said. “God just put us there where he needed us.”

Kimbrough is entirely correct — no one ever expects to need sudden medical attention. Kimbrough, Brown and Anderton were able to help keep the woman alive because they remembered their training and were able to put it to good use in an emergency situation.

Any of us may be called to be heroes in a similar situation, whether it’s at a school, in a restaurant or — like the three women — at a play or a movie theater. We encourage any county resident to contact the Shelby County Red Cross at 987-2792 for information on local first aid and CPR training. Courses can be taken in a classroom setting or in a combination of classroom and online instruction. The information you learn in such a course could be the difference between you standing by in an emergency and you actually saving a life.

The We Say is the opinion of the Shelby County Reporter editorial board.