Voter collapses at polls, assistant principal helps save his life, Missouri school says

An assistant principal sprang to action Tuesday after a voter collapsed outside a polling place at a Missouri high school, the school district says.

Liberty High School was one of two schools in the Wentzville School District serving as polling places on Election Day, the district said in a news release.

Assistant Principal Matt Kiesel was checking in with election officials before the doors opened to make sure they had what they needed for the day when someone ran inside and asked for a defibrillator — a man had collapsed outside.

Kenny Nowling told officials he was talking with a man in line outside the polling place who suddenly fell to the ground, the district said.

Kiesel sprang to action and grabbed an automated external defibrillator (AED) from near the school nurse’s office and rushed outside where a nurse and her husband — an off-duty police offer — were performing CPR on the man, according to the district.

The group used the AED to shock the man, and he regained his pulse just as paramedics arrived, the district said.

Kiesel and Nowling told the district that the man was “alert and talking with paramedics” as he left the scene for treatment.

“Proud to be a part of such a wonderful community and school district!” Nowling wrote in a Facebook post. “So thankful to God that this story had a happy ending.”

Wentzville is roughly 40 minutes west of St. Louis.