The hallway was crowded on a busy Saturday in December 2024. Dallas Caulkins had just returned from lunch and was making her way back to work when she noticed a group of people gathered ahead.

At first, she thought something funny was happening. Then a coworker came running down the hallway.

“Is there a nurse or a doctor anywhere?”

In an instant, the ordinary workday became an emergency.

Caulkins rushed toward the crowd and found her colleague collapsed on the floor. An automated external defibrillator (AED) was brought to the scene. Caulkins placed the pads on his chest, followed the device’s instructions and began chest compressions.

She and a coworker continued CPR until emergency medical services arrived. Even then, an EMS responder asked Caulkins to continue chest compressions until the team was ready to take over.

Her colleague was transported to the hospital with a pulse. But for Caulkins and his loved ones, the uncertainty was just beginning.

For nearly two days, she waited for news. When she finally learned he was alive, she still didn't know what his recovery would look like. He would spend about 10 days on life support.

Several weeks later, her phone rang.

“It was him,” she said. “Getting a call from him and hearing his voice again, there’s nothing like that.”

Her colleague thanked her for helping save his life. Coworkers called Caulkins a hero and a lifesaver.

She doesn’t see herself that way. “I feel like I just did what my training taught me to do,” she said.

Caulkins has maintained her Red Cross CPR training for nearly a decade. She never expected those skills to be needed in this way. But when the moment came, she was ready.

“Traumatic incidents can happen anywhere, at any time, with any person,” Caulkins said. “If you have [CPR] training through the American Red Cross, you could possibly be what saves someone’s life.”

For Caulkins, there was nothing extraordinary about knowing what to do. She had simply spent years preparing for a moment she hoped would never come.

And for one colleague and his family, that readiness made all the difference.