Taco Bell employees save customer’s life who passed out in drive-through line

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. — Employees at a Tennessee Taco Bell saved a customer’s life who had passed out and rolled their car backwards, blocking the drive-through line.

Manager Sonja Nixon Frazier usually works nights, but 40 minutes into picking up a day shift Aug. 12, employees wondered why the drive-through line was not busier, WSMV reported.

They noticed a car stopped the wrong direction, backing up the drive thru line. An employee checked on the driver and found a man unconscious behind the wheel, Clarksville Now reported.

“When I got to the back door and saw it, Jonathan (Jeanis) yelled, ‘He’s passed out!’ and I yelled to another employee to call the ambulance,” Frazier said. “We opened the door, and he was blue. I told Jonathan to park the car, and we both pulled him out and put him on the ground. I said to put him on his left side. His hands and fingertips were blue. I found a pulse, but it was real vague,” Frazier told Clarksville Now.

Frazier, 37, who previously worked in home healthcare, performed life-saving techniques for nearly 15 minutes while waiting for paramedics to arrive, WTVF reported.

“It was kind of crazy. I’m extremely scared of COVID-19 … but I would not leave him,” Frazier told Clarksville Now. “He was trying to get something up. It sounded like a gurgle. I just kept doing the compressions until they got here. They didn’t immediately take over, so I guess I was doing it right.”

The customer regained consciousness and is doing OK.

“He reached out to me and told me he was OK and that I saved his life, and he didn’t know how to repay me, and I told him that was payment enough, to know that he was OK,” Frazier told WSMV.

Frazier said it’s the closest she’s been to a life-or-death situation.

“I feel blessed. I feel I did what everyone would’ve done. I didn’t care about his race, politics, none of that. … It never crossed my mind. It was his life and he needed help,” Frazier told Clarksville Now. “I feel like anybody that knows how to do so should jump at the opportunity to help. We are all human, and we all have to love each other and help.”

Cox Media Group