Colin Atagi

Palm Springs Desert Sun

Kurt Vaughn was 15 minutes into his morning shift at Starbucks and feeling tired and groggy when there was suddenly a commotion.

A customer had passed out on the coffee shop's patio along South Palm Canyon Drive in Palm Springs on Aug 14. Another customer rushed inside to the front counter and asked employees if anyone knew how to perform CPR. One of them turned to Vaughn.

He wasn't certified and everything he knew came from Boy Scout training from when he was 11 to 13 years old and some websites he found a few months ago. But little did Vaughn know, he was about to save someone's life.

"Definitely, the nerves were there," said Vaughn, who turned 20 years old on Aug. 28. "There was someone in my arms that was very close to dying.”

The customer was Mike Furtado, a 66-year-old resident of Martinez in Northern California. He arrived in Palm Springs the previous day and was looking forward to relaxing at his Palm Canyon Resort time share.

Instead, he spent the week at Desert Regional Medical Center after going into cardiac arrest outside Starbucks, a coffee shop he's visited previously. He and Vaughn may have met in passing during one of his earlier visits, but Furtado is now convinced he'll never forget the barista who saved him from an experience that, according to experts, few ever survive.

"He's my hero, now," Furtado said.

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A near-death experience at Starbucks

It was about 8:45 a.m. when Vaughn found himself rushing to the patio and saw Furtado, who was in a chair and "as pale as a piece of paper," he said.

"He was not breathing, but he had an extremely faint pulse," said Vaughn, a Palm Springs High School graduate.

He may have been nervous, but Vaughn knew what had to be done and began ordering bystanders in place.

After they placed Furtado on the ground, a customer held his legs up to maintain blood flow while another Starbucks worker, Livia Pope, held his head and chin in position to keep air moving. Meanwhile, Vaughn performed chest compressions and rescue breathing for about two minutes.

"My brain was shooting out things to do,” he said. "Things were happening and things were going well.”

Another customer dialed 911 and paramedics were on their way. Once they arrived, Vaughn placed Furtado into their care, grabbed his apron, washed up and went back to work as the incident lingered in his mind during the rest of his shift.

Paramedics spent a few more minutes taking care of Furtado before rushing him to the hospital. He was in a medically induced coma for two days and woke up without any memory of being at Starbucks.

Furtado's memory of his near-death experience remains foggy, but he's otherwise doing well. He used to be able to walk 10 miles and laments he can't walk three miles "without feeling bushed."

His family rushed to the desert to be by his side. Days passed without them knowing exactly what happened and they finally got answers after Starbucks officials reached out to check on their customer, said Furtado's daughter, Wendy, 33.

"When we finally met Kurt, we were pretty overwhelmed," she said.

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CPR is something few bother to learn

Wendy Furtado said the Aug. 14 incident encourages her to learn CPR.

It doesn't take long to learn basic CPR, which can be taught via a 90-second American Heart Association training video on youtube, said Scott Jaeggi, an EMT clinical coordinator and instructor at College of the Desert.

Nonetheless, CPR is something few people take the time to learn, even though the benefits may outweigh the amount of time it takes to watch a video or take a course.

"From my observation, not a lot of people are still getting involved as we like," Jaeggi said.

But even though Vaughn isn't fully trained, his efforts impressed doctors who assumed Furtado was treated by an expert, his family said. There was no sign of damage that could result from poorly performed CPR, including broken ribs or sternum separations.

"On a survivor, you might get that report 'I have a lot of pain in my chest,'" Jaeggi said. "Everybody needs to, before they get involved, scan the scene of the patient and make sure it's safe before they get involved.”

But on Aug. 14, "Everything ended up lining up perfectly,” said Vaughn, who plans on becoming a certified EMT and performing search and rescue.

Multiple agencies, including the American Red Cross and American Heart Association, offer brief training courses for anyone interested in learning CPR.

Jaeggi encourages people to take a moment out of their day to learn something new in case they ever come across an emergency situation.

"It’s proven to be very beneficial, because a lot of people are afraid to get involved if they don’t have a lot of training,” he said.