The Boerne Independent School District is calling a school bus driver a hero after he saved a man's life early Thursday morning.
Driver Phil Baldwin was working his regular morning route when he saw a man who was choking on a piece of food and running toward the school bus.
Baldwin and another bus driver who was right behind him, Brent Taylor, pulled over on Tarpon and the I-10 access road to assist the man.
"I looked up and I saw what it looked like, the guy was choking," Taylor said. "The driver in front of me [Baldwin] was doing the Heimlich maneuver and my bus was empty, I came out, called 9-1-1."
Boerne ISD provided the surveillance video from inside Baldwin's school bus, showing the two springing into action to save the man’s life.
UT Health San Antonio paramedic David Wampler was also driving his daughter to the bus stop when he saw it all unfold.
"My main concern, whenever I first got there, was, No. 1, was this guy going to die," Wampler said, "And No. 2, that he was going to die right in front of a school bus load of children."
Wampler said that he immediately rushed to help.
"I stepped in and started taking over the Heimlich maneuver until the victim passed out. He became unconscious and was unable to hold his own weight," Wampler described. "So that's when I helped him down to the floor and we switch from the Heimlich maneuver to abdominal thrust."
Luckily, the men helped save the 65-year-old man's life.
Wampler said that it was apparent that the school bus driver had adequate training.
Boerne ISD told KENS 5 that staff receive mandatory training every two years and, in this case, it helped save a life.
"It would have been the end for him, probably," Taylor said. "He probably would have passed out before. I mean, I don't know. I'd hope some other citizen would have stepped up and done what we did."
School bus driver Phil Baldwin was too shy to go on camera but the Boerne ISD superintendent will recognize Baldwin for his “quick thinking” and heroism at the next school board meeting scheduled for Monday, March 26.