KE Student Credited With Saving Neighbor's Life

A Kenmore East High School student has been credited with saving the life of his neighbor who was experiencing a potentially fatal medical emergency.

Senior Caelob Wilkins, who recently earned his Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) certification, is currenly engaged in an internship with the Town of Tonawanda Paramedics. In addition to his studies at Kenmore East, Caelob participates in the Erie 1 BOCES Health Careers Program. He was at his home on Saturday, June 13th when he received a call that his elderly neighbor was facing a life-threatening situation and needed immediate assistance. She undergoes dialysis each day and the access port for her machine became dislodged, causing significant blood loss from her femoral artery. Before passing out, she managed to contact a friend via phone. Her friend knew Caelob was the one to call immediately after alerting 911 operators since it would take several minutes for paramedics to arrive.

Caelob and his parents immediately rushed over to her house, finding her unconscious on the floor after having lost an extensive amount of blood. Caelob remained calm and immediately took charge of the situation, applying a tourniquet to stop the bleeding. This was critical in those precious few minutes while they waited for emergency responders to arrive on scene.

Caelob was not only praised for his quick thinking and ability to apply the skills he has learned through his education and training, which made a life-saving difference. He was also praised for his ability to remain calm during such a critical emergency as well as the fact that he didn't hesitate to step in and take action and had made such an impression on his community that he was contacted in the first place.

"He definitely saved my sister's life," her brother said.

Caelob aspires to pursue a career in the emergency response services field and is well on his way as just last week he joined the Brighton Volunteer Fire Department.