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Detroit firefighter, Flint nurse rescue man having heart attack at Great Smoky Mountains

Man collapsed at welcome center

DETROIT – A Detroit firefighter returning home from vacation rescued a man who was having a heart attack at a Great Smoky Mountains welcome center.

Randy Manigualt and his wife were headed back to Michigan from a vacation in the south when they stopped at the Great Smoky Mountains welcome center.

“I heard a scream outside,” he said.

Manigualt, 51, saw a man who had collapsed, was turning blue and had no pulse. He began doing chest compressions while another person, a nurse from Flint who was also on vacation, grabbed a defibrillator. 

The man was upright and talking within minutes of being put in an ambulance.

"I think everyone should know CPR," Manigualt said.

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