USW recognizes member for saving life

WEIRTON - Officials with United Steelworkers Local 2911 took a moment Friday to recognize the efforts of one employee of the Cleveland-Cliffs mill in Weirton to save the life of a coworker.

Cory Adams, who has been employed in Weirton for almost five years, was working in the tin mill one day in mid April.

"I was just doing my job," Adams said, noting a supervisor approached, asking if he knew cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

He learned a coworker had experienced what later was determined to be a heart attack, and immediately began using the life-saving technique.

"I did CPR for about a minute and a half," Adams, who also is a member of the West Middletown (Pa.) Volunteer Fire Department, said, explaining he was able to revive his coworker as a result.

Mark Glyptis, president of USW Local 2911, expressed his appreciation to Adams for his quick-thinking in saving his coworker's life.

"The doctors said if he hadn't done that, he (the coworker) would have died," Glyptis said.

In appreciation of Adams' efforts, the union presented him Friday with a plaque, as well as an engraved watch and some other items. A second plaque will go on display in the union hall on West Street in Weirton, Glyptis said.

Glyptis said the union has been encouraging its membership to learn CPR and other first-aid skills, and offering classes, noting while the hope is to never have to use them, it is better to know the skills in the event they are needed.

"We've had numerous classes," Glyptis said. "They've been well attended."

(Howell can be contacted at chowell@weirtondailytimes.com, and followed via Twitter @CHowellWDT)