Local 101 apprentice Tim Toci
The day started as any other at the AEP Mountaineer Plant in New Haven, West Virginia. Members on the night shift walked through the gate and went to the break shack before their shift started. Traveler Tim Toci, an apprentice out of L-101 (Denver) chatted with another traveler who he’d become friends with, Arnold Sheil from Local 45 Zone 193 (Baltimore), before the shift started.
“Then I turned and started to put my work gear on and heard a bang. I thought someone had broken through a chair. But I turned and saw Arnie on the ground,” Toci said, noting that Sheil looked as if he were having a seizure.
Robert Edens, Boilermaker steward for the job from L-667 (Charleston, West Virginia) entered the break shack with a handful of paperwork when took in the scene before him. He jumped into action and called a coordinator while someone else called 911; but emergency services weren’t close, as the plant is out in the country.
Toci said the room was in chaos. When Sheil began struggling to breathe and then stopped breathing, Toci knew he had to do something. His apprenticeship training kicked in and that “something” he did was continuous CPR compressions until EMS arrived.
“I didn’t know if it was working or not. When I was administering CPR, he seemed to get his breath again, so I rolled him on his side to try to get air in his lungs,” Toci said. “It seemed like he was still fighting. And I was telling him to fight, to keep going.”
After the crew was dismissed for the day, Toci went to the ER to wait for news with Sheil’s travelling partner. Shortly after he arrived, doctors came out and shared the devastating news—they couldn’t save him. Doctors had established a pulse but, in the end, all interventions came too late. Toci immediately thought about Sheil’s wife and wished the outcome had been different.
“Tim did a great job,” Edens said. “After he worked on him and after the ambulance came, the superintendent and I made the decision to send everyone home. The next day, B&W brought in counselors, which was really nice.”
Local 101 BM-ST Robert Gallegos said he knows the training the local does with apprentices is important, and it pays off on the jobsite. In addition to CPR training and OSHA training, first year apprentices get Red Cross training.
“I was really proud of [Tim],” Edens said. “That one of our guys really knew what to do. He’s a really great apprentice. I wish we had more like him.”
