North Dakota Safety Council Honors Lifesavers - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

  We spend so much time with our co-workers, but would you be prepared to save one of their lives?  An engineer at Basin Electric Power Coop was ready -- and his response got the attention of the North Dakota Safety Council.

Quick thinking -- and workplace safety training -- allowed two friends to go on being friends.  Just before Christmas, Caleb Teigen, Field Engineer/Project Manager, working at Basin Electric for Industrial Contractors, Inc., found his co-worker slumped in a chair not responding.  "You just, you block everything out, and you go to work.  It was tough and it's your friend that's not responding, but you know not doing anything is worse than trying something," says Caleb.

The friend Caleb helped is very happy he did.  "I'm extremely grateful.  If it wasn't for those guys, I wouldn't' be standing here today.  If there's such a thing as dying in a lucky place, that was it.  I have good friends and skilled people," says Lee Aipperspach, Laborer's Foreman, Maintenance Crew, working at Basin Electric for Industrial Contractors, Inc.

For one first responder, who was part of the team that took over from Caleb to assist Lee, being part of saving a life had a profound impact.  "It gives me goose bumps now, even just thinking about it and to see what an AED actually does.  You know, after saving a life like that, I'm very confident and the rest of the first response team is very confident of being called any time.  I believe in this training, yes I do," says Dan Leingang, Instrument Tech/Safety Committee Member, for Basin Electric.  

Though Caleb was prepared when the emergency presented, he has strong feelings about this training overall.  "In my opinion, everybody should be CPR trained and at least have a little bit of understanding of how to run an AED -- not only having the CPR training, but having the courage to step in and do something."

They did, and for that, they're all receiving the Lifesaver Award at the North Dakota Safety Council Banquet.  More important than the award, their friend is alive and well, which the group attributes to good workplace training.