FARMINGTON — The Red Cross honored two Farmington teachers this week for saving a colleague’s life.

When one teacher heard a colleague in distress in the bathroom, she crawled under her stall and dragged the woman out and another performed CPR.

Superintendent Tom Ward said it happened in September during an opening day workshop for all employees, held at Mt. Blue High School.

Staff had just left the auditorium for a break when Sarah Reynolds, a gifted and talented teacher who works at Cascade Brook School, heard another woman in the bathroom clearly in distress. The woman collapsed.

“She crawled under the stall and pulled out the person that was in distress — by that time, she had stopped breathing, it was very scary,” Ward said.

As Reynolds asked people to go to the office to call 911, math teacher Roger Bolduc happened on the scene and began CPR.

“Luckily, having all our staff there, our school nurses came immediately and they started the (automated external defibrillator) on her,” Ward said. “By the time the first responders got there, she wasn’t breathing on her own, (they) couldn’t detect a heartbeat.”

The woman was whisked to the hospital.

“It was very scary for everybody,” Ward said. “I was just extremely pleased all of our staff and all of our first responders came and helped us. Soaking wet, (Sarah’s) 90 pounds, a tiny person. Luckily, she was small so she could crawl under the stall to help the employee out and get her to where they could start CPR.”

He nominated Reynolds and Bolduc for the Red Cross’s Lifesaver Hero Award. The Northern and Eastern Maine Chapter of the American Red Cross held its annual Real Heroes Breakfast in Brewer this week.

Reynolds downplayed her efforts in comments to the Red Cross included in a news release.

“It really was a life-changing moment for me,” she said. “I feel like I played such a small role in that moment. Just watching the true heroes perform CPR … and save her life was an amazing thing to witness. I really thought she was gone, and it’s a miracle now that she’s here.”

Ward said it turned out the colleague who collapsed in the bathroom, a healthy, younger woman with no history of heart issues, had been in cardiac arrest.

“Luckily, she came out of it,” Ward said. “They reacted so quickly to help her and they saved her from having any serious damage. She’s back to work and loving life and everything’s great.”

kskelton@sunjournal.com

Cascade Brook School teacher Sarah Reynolds receives the Red Cross’s Lifesaver Award earlier this week. Roger Bolduc, a math teacher at Mt. Blue High School, was honored with the same award but didn’t attend the ceremony. Reynolds and Bolduc saved a colleague’s life in September when the woman collapsed in a locked bathroom stall during a cardiac arrest. (Photo courtesy Memorymaker Photography)

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