Macedonia, OH, Customer Services Supervisor Somica Butler was on duty recently in Grand River, a village 40 miles away, when she got a call from a concerned colleague.
An employee in Macedonia who wasn’t feeling well had left work early, and the colleague was worried about the man’s well-being.
Butler tried unsuccessfully to reach the man by phone, and she soon learned that he had called his office and indicated he was driving on an interstate — lost, disoriented and distressed.
Butler stepped up her efforts to contact her co-worker, who had experienced an adverse reaction to a change in his prescription medication routine.
Eventually he called her back, by which point he had been driving around for hours.
Butler advised him to exit the interstate and park at a gas station — which, remarkably, was close to her location in Grand River.
Staying on the phone with him, she was able to get to him in 10 minutes to render aid and call 911.
“Somica is a true definition of a leader who cares,” said Macedonia Postmaster Willie Foreman. “Even though she was on a detail on the other side of the city, she heard a member of her team was in trouble and she jumped into action to see how she could help. She very well may have saved a life that day.”
Butler’s co-worker, who was hospitalized, recovered from the incident.