After a tough week of final exams, Prince Asante ’23 was dozing on the shuttle bus from campus back to Siena’s student housing in Troy when he was quickly awakened by the swerving of the vehicle. What he did next saved a woman’s life.
The bus swerved because the trainee driver behind the wheel was having a cardiac episode. Her instructor immediately grabbed the wheel and steered the shuttle to safety. Asante sprang from his seat ten feet away and felt the woman’s neck. No pulse. Then he felt her wrist. No pulse there, either. Her eyes were closed, and she wasn’t breathing.
Asante, a biology major from Ghana who plans to enroll in medical school after taking a gap year, knew immediately that every second was crucial. To administer CPR, he would need to lay her out flat with room for himself beside her. He took her off the bus and set her down by the road. A Good Samaritan named Renee Armao, who is due to graduate soon from nursing school, stopped her car, got out and ran over to help.
Asante’s CPR skills came from a class he took at Siena; this was the first time he put those skills to the test.
“I had never done it on a real person before until that day.”
With a call in to 911, Asante began CPR, giving the driver as much as air as possible while keeping up the rhythmic pressure on her chest. The Colonie EMTs arrived to take over treatment and transport the woman to the hospital. She remains in stable condition.
“He literally saved the woman’s life,” said Mike Koch, the Yankee Trails driving instructor who took the wheel during the May 6 incident.
Koch himself most likely saved lives as well by getting the bus back under control.
“It was a very scary scene,” said Asante. “I never believed that I would be able to save someone’s life, that I would be the reason why someone would smile. I think this will be the proudest moment
of my life.”
Asante’s heroics caught the attention of local media: News10, NewsChannel 13, Spectrum News and the Albany Times Union all interviewed him and Koch about the incident. The story is being picked up this week by other news outlets around the country. For his brave work, Asante also received a presidential coin from President Chris Gibson, above.
Yankee Trails CEO Stephen Tobin '97 said the fast thinking and action of their driver and Siena’s Asante literally saved lives:
“Yankee Trails and Siena College have had an amazing partnership for many years. Our support for one another meets no bounds and over this past weekend, that partnership was taken to a new level when a Siena student and one of our drivers saved a life,” he said. “To say that we are beyond proud of Mike and Prince is an understatement. Between their level-headedness and quick action, we are happy to report that the driver is stable.”