CAHOKIA HEIGHTS, Ill. – The mayor of Cahokia Heights, Illinois, is being hailed as a hero after saving a 7-year-old girl’s life. The girl’s family says Curtis McCall Sr. brought her back to life.
Seven-year-old Kennedi Dukes and her family are counting their blessings after the child suffered an asthma attack over the weekend while driving to the grocery store. Kennedi forgot her inhaler at home.
“On the way to the store, she’s wheezing,” Jarnell Dukes, Kennedi’s father, said. “So, I remembered the asthma pump was in mom’s car, so I’m like, we have to get home.”
The drive home was too far to get help for Kennedi, who blacked out while having breathing problems. Her dad realized the closest stop was Cahokia Heights City Hall.
“I bang on the door until someone comes and it’s the mayor,” Jarnell said.
The mayor’s prior training as a former police chief kicked in.
“I heard yelling and screaming, ‘Please help! Help!’ Pounding on the door downstairs to the office here,” McCall said. “And I went down and I seen this dad with a child in his arms. The child was slumped over. … I opened up the front door to city hall, laid the child on the floor, and the child looked to me—she was unresponsive.”
The mayor said he performed CPR on Kennedi until, finally, a sign of hope.
“She started vomiting first, but (was) still unresponsive and after that, I continued the CPR, and maybe another three or four minutes, I heard a cough,” he said.
“My mayor is my hero,” Kennedi said.
“He’s more than a hero for me, for her,” Jarnell said. “He saved her life.”
Mayor McCall believes he was meant to be there.
“God had me at the right place at the right time,” he said. “As far as bringing her back to life, I think God is in control of that.”