Loveland teen saves man's life in McDonald's, 8 days after becoming certified EMT

LOVELAND – Right person in the right place at the right time.

In this case, it was a McDonald’s restaurant at 10:30 p.m. on a Wednesday night.

And William Berglin was there, grabbing a late-night bite with a friend when he put his recently completed EMT training to use to save a life.

Berglin, 18, was in the dining room of McDonald’s, 1809 W. Eisenhower Blvd., when a man ran out of the men’s restroom saying someone had collapsed and was unconscious in a stall.

“I stood up and said, ‘I’m an EMT, I’m going to check it out. Call 911,” Berglin said Wednesday at a news conference organized by the restaurant’s franchise owner to recognize his heroism.

Berglin looked over the top of the locked stall, saw drug paraphernalia and went to work.

“A dude was lying on the ground, and he was turning purple at that moment,” he said.

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Berglin climbed over the top of the stall to unlock the door, put on some gloves and kicked away something the victim had in his hand.

“I pulled him over to the door, opened his airway, and I noticed he wasn’t breathing and that he had pinpoint pupils,” Berglin said.

The man who originally found the victim on the floor told Berglin he had Narcan in his car, so the EMT told him to go get it.

“I said, 'This is a really good scenario where you should use Narcan,' so he went and grabbed it,” Berglin said. “I administered it, and they put 911 to my ear and (the dispatcher) said start CPR.”

Berglin, who works as a lifeguard at the Berthoud Recreation Center, performed CPR until Loveland police arrived, then let one of the officers take over.

“I turned around and I looked back,and he was upright, the patient who was on the ground,” Berglin said.

Berglin, who will graduate Saturday from Thompson Valley High School, remained on the scene as Thompson Valley Emergency Services and a Loveland Fire Rescue Authority crew arrived to take control of the scene.

Capt. Jason Tegtman of Thompson Valley EMS was one of the first responders to arrive and said there’s little doubt Berglin saved a man’s life that night.

“He did what his training taught him to do; that’s what we ask for in this business,” Tegtman said.

Berglin was honored late last week at his school, where School Resource Officer Luis Castellanos of the Loveland Police Department and school administrators presented him with an honor coin.

“There is no doubt that the male likely would not have survived had William not stepped up and offered his help,” Loveland PD wrote on a Facebook post following that presentation. “As William prepares for his high school graduation, we want to thank him for his quick thinking and his ability to stay calm in a chaotic situation.”

Berglin had received his EMT certification May 9 upon completion of a training program at Front Range Community College that he had taken through a partnership with the Thompson School District. He’s hoping to find a full-time job as an EMT with a local emergency services agency or fire department, he said.

This experience, he said, simply reinforced his desire to help others.

When he called his mother, Lacy, late that night as he was leaving the restaurant, he told her: “I just thought it was fortunate that somebody in the restaurant had Narcan and that I was thankful to be in the right place for that to happen,” she said.

“He talked a little bit that night about how everybody just kind of stopped for a minute, and he just became aware of everybody looking at each other and just knowing that it was his to handle.”

Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, some sports and other topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@coloradoan.com, twitter.com/KellyLyell or facebook.com/KellyLyell.news.