Last winter, Sodexho Dining Services, the company that runs the dining centers on campus, mandated that two employees on every shift have to be CPR certified, a move that came just in time to save the life of one of their workers. Barbara Wozniak, a cashier at Russell Sage Dining Hall, suffered a major heart attack while setting up for breakfast and two of her co-workers, Shirley Martel and Scott Welling, performed CPR until Public Safety Officer Tom Vumbaco arrived with the defibrillator. Martel and Welling truly saved Wozniak’s life, and were accordingly presented the President’s Award by Sodexho, the highest award given by the company for quick response and saving a life. The award, presented last Friday morning, included a framed citation and an engraved watch.
“It was a situation where people worked together as a team, not only Sodexho employees, but Public Safety as well, to save someone’s life. It doesn’t get any better than that,” said Paul Keck, Sodexho operations director at RPI.
Starting last winter, CPR was integrated into the training of every Rensselaer Dining Services manager, supervisor, and hourly employee. Welling and Martel, along with 12 other Sodexho employees, were certified for CPR through a Public Safety course given over spring break, just a few weeks prior to the incident. Through the course, they learned both how to perform CPR and how to recognize when it is needed, and thus were able to quickly act when Wozniak collapsed to the floor unconscious. Public Safety officers had also been trained in the use of defibrillators just a few months earlier, instruction that has already proved invaluable.
Wozniak is well-known at RSDH, and she was missed while recovering. Over 250 students signed a “get well” card that was sent to her. Sodexho representatives in attendance were Richard Zucconi, Division Vice President, Frank Romeo, Senior Director of Safety and Health, and John Fusco, Resident District Manager at RPI.
