UG2 Account Manager Phil Willyard Goes Above and Beyond
UG2 puts a great deal of emphasis on safety and training. A recent episode at a customer site in Little Rock, Arkansas illustrates that you can never be too prepared.
UG2 Account Manager Phil Willyard saw a young couple walking toward him, and the young woman was looking unwell. She began to ask about calling for an ambulance when she had a seizure. Phil and another employee caught her as she lost consciousness. Phil immediately moved the unconscious woman onto her side and cleared her airway. She had stopped breathing and was nonresponsive. Seeing that she was in cardiac arrest, Phil prepared for the prospect of using an automated external defibrillator (AED). That’s when the woman’s boyfriend said she’d recently undergone surgery to have a pacemaker put in.
Phil instead performed CPR on the young woman, resuscitating her twice, with help from a passing medical student, and maintaining her oxygen level and heart rate until EMTs arrived.
While UG2 provides extensive training on emergency first aid and CPR, Phil’s background made him uniquely qualified to respond in the life-or-death moment. He served three combat tours in the U.S. Army and has extensive specialized training in lifesaving.
“The first thing is, you need to keep a cool head,” says Phil. “Luckily with my combat experience as a non-commissioned officer with soldiers I was responsible for, I had learned to keep a level head and keep my bearings. Second, I would say if there’s ever an opportunity to get any type of medical emergency training, I advise people to take it because not only could it be somebody walking through the mall, it could be a family member, or it could be a friend. You never know when a situation is going to arrive to where you need training like this.”
Phil was recruited by UG2 for this Account Manager position earlier this year. Although he did not yet have experience managing staff, his expertise and background both in the Army and in other positions including in facilities made him a top candidate.
The day-to-day stressors Phil typically deals with fall more in the category of preparing for inspections and juggling employee schedules—challenges he seems to take on with gusto. “Whatever comes up, you get the job done,” says Phil. He noted that, when he has a day off, he makes a point of making time to go fishing or take a walk in the park – activities that relax and restore him.
Phil himself was doing some recruiting on a recent day, staffing a job fair at the mall, when the young woman and her boyfriend again approached him, this time wearing huge smiles. Phil jumped up to receive a giant hug that nearly brought him to tears. It was the first he learned that his patient had fully recovered.