Woman who died for 4 minutes brought back to life by AT&T worker installing her internet

Kevin Tenkhoff, 62, a Customer Service Technician with AT&T for the past 19 years, was making a routine service call in Springfield, Missouri, in October 2023 when his quick thinking saved a woman’s life. He was installing the internet at Helen and Ryan Parli's home when he heard someone yelling.

Initially, he thought it may have been someone calling out for their dog , but he decided to check out the situation in case someone needed help. He rushed through the yard toward the front to see the commotion.

When he reached the top of the slope, he saw Ryan leaning over his wife, Helen, 51, and giving chest compressions. Kevin quickly removed his tool belt, ran over and asked if he could help Ryan, who was talking to the 911 operators and doing CPR simultaneously.

Kevin took over CPR duties, giving Helen chest compressions while Ryan was able to devote his attention to the 911 operator. "She was laying there, not breathing, eyes wide open. Had like a glaze over her eyes and I just started compressions as fast as I could," Kevin recalled. It was the first time he had ever performed CPR on a live person, but had been trained as part of his job at AT&T.

AT&T takes CPR training with its technicians seriously. When technicians start on the job, they receive leader-led first aid training, including CPR and a web-based refresher every 3 years to keep them up to speed. “I hope I’m doing this right and hope this woman will pull through and survive,” Kevin thought while continuing to deliver chest compressions, he later told Upworthy.

"I could remember how calm he was and how just him taking over helped me see what was going on. He just went above and beyond,” Ryan said.

Kevin’s chest compressions helped Helen regain consciousness before paramedics arrived on the scene to take her to the hospital. The woman had been dead for 4 minutes before Kevin’s compressions brought her back to life. She later learned that if Kevin wasn’t there to help, things could have turned out terribly. "They said at the hospital that if he hadn't been there if he hadn't helped me, I could have been brain-damaged,” Helen recalled.

“He changed my life for the better because he gave me a sense of hope that there are good people in this world,” Helen added. Helen now considers Kevin to be her “guardian angel.”

“Just glad I was able to help,” Kevin said with a smile.

Later, Helen admitted that she almost didn’t let Kevin in the house. Their appointment had been for 1 pm and Kevin showed up early, at 10 am and she considered asking him to come back at his scheduled time. Lucky for her, she rethought her decision.

Helen spent 6 days in the hospital and had a defibrillator-like device surgically implanted in her heart. Doctors discovered that she had a dead heart cell in her heart that prevented it from pumping properly.

The story is a beautiful example of what can happen when good people are put in a situation where they must respond in an emergency. It’s also an excellent endorsement for AT&T’s technician training. If Kevin hadn’t been trained for years on how to administer CPR, he might not have been able to provide the life-saving aid that prevented Helen from getting brain damage.