MUSD coworkers, firefighting crew save man

Allison Butler said she was just doing her job.

The training coordinator at Maricopa Unified School District’s transportation department was getting ready to go on an afternoon high school bus route Oct. 17 when she got a radio call.

She was needed in the shop. Right away.

She ran into the shop. Bus driver David Bruckner was lying on the ground. Before Butler had arrived, he was breathing, but now he wasn’t and didn’t have a pulse.

Right away, Butler, who is a CPR and AED instructor, began doing compressions.

After a minute — or maybe two, she can’t remember — she asked her co-worker Sergio Pulido to go get an automated external defibrillator machine.

She applied the pads, shocked him and continued doing compressions.

In total, Butler and the rest of her colleagues performed life-saving measures for around 13 minutes before fire and ambulance crews arrived. They used the defibrillator two more times, and in the last few minutes, Michael Richardson, a mechanic, took over performing CPR.

“I didn’t really panic or anything,” Richardson said. “That’s just what we were supposed to do.”

Both Butler and Richardson said they were just doing their job.

“I don’t think of it as anything abnormal,” Butler said. “I was just doing my job. I think anyone else would have stepped up and done it.”

Pulido, Greg Munguia, Fred Leguna, Amy Kowalski, Claudia Verdugo and Susie Thomas, all employees in the transportation department, helped in getting the defibrillator, calling 911 or providing their assistance.

“We just did what had to be done,” Monguia said. “We just did it without really thinking about it.”

“It was a team effort,” Pulido added.

That team effort is what helped save Bruckner’s life.

When the fire and ambulance crews arrived, they took over and transported Bruckner to the hospital. Capt. Jim Lairmore, a firefighter on the crew, said Butler and her colleagues deserve all the credit.

“If it weren’t for them, who knows what would have happened to Dave,” he said. “They’re just ordinary people put into an extraordinary event. To me, that’s a hero right there. That’s the definition of a hero.”

Damon Flaherty, the paramedic on the crew, agreed.

“They actually did all the work before we got there,” Flaherty said, adding the quicker an AED is used for someone in that condition, the better.

Both the MUSD employees and the fire crew that responded to the 911 call were honored during a November City Council meeting for the life-saving actions they performed.

“It’s nice to be recognized by the (city), but at the same time, you know it’s more about them,” Lairmore said. “That’s what I’m paid to do. That’s why I became a firefighter, to help people and to provide that type of service.”

Butler and Richardson said the same thing.

“It was very nice. It was very thoughtful. It was very much appreciated,” Butler said. “I thank (the city) for their awards and their medals and those things. But I think people do this every single day that deserve recognition quite a bit more than a situation like this. These firefighters do this day in and day out.”

And when Richardson heard Lairmore had called him and the rest of his colleagues heroes?

“Nah,” he responded. “Nah.”

***ADVERTISEMENT***Butler said she wishes the incident had never happened. But if there’s one saving grace, it’s that it demonstrates CPR is necessary and can save lives.

“I think people more and more are realizing that CPR does work,” she said. “People need to know that it works. You can’t give up on a person.”

Bruckner doesn’t remember anything that happened, but when he heard what Butler, Richardson and his other colleagues did, he said he was thrilled.

“They have good training classes there. They knew what to do.”

Bruckner, who still is recuperating, has expressed how appreciative he is.

“Dave and I were neighbors before he ever started working here,” Butler said. “He lived across the street from me for several years. He’s a very quiet person, very wonderful person. He said thank you and gave me a big hug. Coming from Dave, that’s a pretty large deal.”

She said she appreciates it, but it was completely unnecessary. Again, she was just doing her job. 

Click here for a story on MUSD's efforts to get teachers CPR certified.

(CAPTION FOR PHOTO IN VIEW GALLERY: From left paramedic Damon Flaherty, engineer Tom Reid, Capt. Jim Lairmore, David Bruckner, Mike Richardson, Mayor Christian Price, Fred Leguna, Greg Munguia, Claudia Verdugo, Susie Thomas and Fire Chief Brady Leffler. Bottom row: Allison Butler and Sergio Pulido.)