JEFFERSON PARISH, La. — Late last year, 17-year-old Haynes Academy student Hudson Mobley spotted a man on the ground during his shift at a Kenner country club. He performed CPR until first responders arrived using skills he learned through lifeguard training. The man survived.
“Hudson saved this man's life,” said Dr. Kenneth St. Charles, CEO of the Louisiana Red Cross.
At a pep rally at the school Friday, he presented Mobley with a Certificate of Merit signed by President Biden.
It is one of the highest honors awarded by the organization.
Mobley said he and a friend were in a golf cart at Chateau Golf and Country Club on October 20 when they saw a crowd gathered at the driving range.
“I jump out, check it out, see a guy passed out,” he said. The man had suffered cardiac arrest. “I made sure someone had called 911 and I started doing CPR,” said Mobley.
He began with chest compressions. Dr. St. Charles explained that during a cardiac episode “the risk is that your heart will stop pumping, which then means your other organs won't receive blood.”
A few minutes later, someone appeared with a defibrillator. Mobley had learned how to use it during two Red Cross courses he took as part of lifeguard training.
“He knew how to set it up, he knew what he needed to do with the victim's chest to get ready for the shocks, he administered the shocks,” said Dr. St. Charles.
“I didn’t really think about much until I was actually doing this,” Mobley described, “Then it clicked with me, ‘Hey I’m right in the middle of this.’ It got pretty scary.”
After a few more minutes, first responders arrived and took the man to the hospital. In a later Facebook post, the Kenner Fire Department said he was “alive because of Hudson’s heroic act.”
Once the ambulance left and the scene calmed down, Mobley described how he “sat on the curb and started crying.” One of the police officers at the scene approached him and asked if he was alright, then commended him for a job well done.
“I’m very grateful for all the awards, I’m grateful for everything but most of all I’m grateful I actually–” Mobley paused, “the guy survived, that’s really the best thing you could wish for, you know?”
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