While we can all agree that The Office is timeless, one Tucson, Arizona man really put the television show’s legacy to the test.
The man in question, 21-year-old Cross Scott, credits Michael Scott with helping him save the life of an unconscious woman with CPR.
Arizona Daily Star reports that on Jan. 11, Cross—who is a lead technician at an auto shop—had been test-driving a customer’s car when he saw a white sedan moving by the side of the road with its hazard lights on.
Cross pulled over and saw that a woman had collapsed against the steering wheel. While he didn’t have a cell phone, he immediately acted: He placed a rock in front of the car, broke her window when she didn’t respond to him, and checked her pulse.
At that point, two women had already pulled over to help Cross and call 911. One woman put the driver's seat back so that Cross could access the unconscious woman and perform CPR. Cross told the Star that all he could think about was Michael Scott singing the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive”—“Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive”—from The Office episode where everyone gets CPR training. Apparently, the song is the accurate tempo for chest compressions.
“I’ve never prepared myself for CPR in my life,” Scott told The Star. “I had no idea what I was doing.”
The woman eventually regained consciousness and threw up, and the paramedics arrived 10 minutes later to take her to the hospital. Cross finished his shift at the auto shop and then visited the woman at the hospital.
“If you don’t do CPR, that victim will die,” Courtney Slanaker, executive director of the Red Cross Southern Arizona chapter, told The Star. “Don’t be afraid to act. Whatever you do will help that victim and hopefully prevent a death.”
