Woman saves man’s life over phone
“I think I am having a heart attack!”
That is what Earl Phillips of Columbia told Kentucky Department of Revenue employee Natalie Brown one morning during a phone conversation.
On May 26, Phillips woke up to a pain in one of his arms.
“I thought it would pass away. I didn’t know what it was,” Phillips said.
Phillips received a phone call that morning while dealing with the pain.
Phillips made a call on the previous day to the revenue cabinet about a tax issue he was dealing with.
“I was returning his call and I had not been able to return it until the next day,” Brown said.
When Brown called, she noticed that something was wrong with Phillips.
“He answered the phone and I noticed his breathing was unsteady but he continued to have the conversation,” Brown said.
“By then it was really bad,” Phillips said.
Phillips, who was alone in his home in the den with the lights off, wasn’t coherent while on the phone with Brown.
“I asked her to call back,” Phillips said. “She could tell I was stressed out about something. She could tell something was wrong.”
“It came to a point where he couldn’t talk any more,” Brown said. “I asked him if he needed me to call for help and he said he didn’t know.”
When Phillips realized that something was really wrong with him, he asked Brown for help.
Brown called her local 911 center and wase transferred to Adair County 911.
“I didn’t think she would actually do it,” Phillips said.
Phillips received a call from emergency services after hanging up with Brown.
“I don’t know how long it was before they called,” Phillips said. “Time was not an issue.”
Phillips was thankful that Brown called for him because he said he couldn’t do it himself.
“I couldn’t have called 911 myself,” Phillips said. “I couldn’t see the numbers.”
His son Dewayne Phillips called while he was talking to emergency services and met him at the hospital.
“Luckily they were able to get to him in time,” Brown said.
Phillips was flown to Louisville where he had a stint put in because he had 90 percent blockage in an artery.
“I do believe she did save my life,” Phillips said. “Give her a plaque on the wall, give her a raise or a new desk, anything.”
Brown, who was supposed to have contacted Phillips the day before, had put his number in a different folder than she usually keeps contact information. She didn’t find it until the next day.
Phillips was told that misplacing the number was uncharacteristic of Brown.
“They said that was unusual,” Phillips said.
“It is kind of a strange thing that I called him right at that time,” Brown said.
Phillips has since recovered and is in better health.
By Allison Hollon
allison@accvonline.com
