I hope if  I ever pass out and turn purple  at Wal-Mart that Sharon Smith is working. Sharon was moonlighting as a cashier at the Fountain store on Super Bowl Sunday when shoppers noticed a drunk man face down on the floor,  unconscious and barely breathing. Sharon rushed to the rescue.

By day, Sharon, 36, is a county 911 emergency dispatcher. She has helped save lots of people in peril by phone. She didn’t flinch when the trauma was at her feet in the foyer at Wal-Mart. She tilted the man’s head back and opened his mouth. That’s when she saw the gum in his throat. She stuck her fingers in and removed it.  I would have fainted just watching her. Then she would have had to save me.

The man told her he didn’t want to live. He didn’t get his way with Sharon. She revived him and  kept him stable until medics arrived. 

The Pikes Peak Chapter of American Red Cross named her a Hometown Hero. Read all about her – and other heroes – at gazette.com/yourspace.

Sharon’s heroics as a dispatcher landed her on the TV show “Call 911″ last year when she calmly guided an 8-year-old girl caller whose mom had a stroke. Hear the audio by clicking the Related Multimedia link at gazette.com/yourspace.

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