A member of the Illinois Army National Guard and Monmouth business owner was able to intervene to save a man’s life.Justin Lipes of Roseville in April went to check on a man passed out in a busy Peoria intersection.
Foam was coming from the man’s mouth and his eyes were rolled back so Lipes began to apply medical techniques such as chest compressions while awaiting paramedics.
Doctors would later tell EMTs that without Lipes actions the man, suffering from what Lipes believes was a drug overdose, would have surely died.
Lipes says apart from the Army he has no formal medical training.
He says that he believes God put him in the right place at the right time for a reason.
“If the guy did wake up and came to or whatever, if I did save him, let that day or moment be the first moment in the rest of your life. A new life. A one of making better choices,” Lipes says.
Lipes posted on Facebook in response to this story that he’s “no hero” and he believes most people would have done the same that he did.
He went on to say that a lot of what’s going on with “politics” and the “mainstream media does a good job of dividing but in reality people love people” and “kindness is not dead.”
Lipes owns the The Tac Shack in Monmouth and Peoria.
