PORTLAND — A fire department spokesman says Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber performed CPR on an unconscious woman Monday evening in downtown Portland, assisting her until medics could arrive.
Portland Fire and Rescue Lt. Rich Chatman says Kitzhaber was traveling by car through downtown Portland at about 5 p.m. when he saw a woman on the ground. Chatman says the governor told his driver to pull over and asked his security officers to call 911. The former emergency room doctor determined the woman had no pulse and he began CPR.
A fire department medic on scene, Lt. Alan Ferschweiler, says when he arrived the woman had a pulse but was not breathing on her own so the governor was providing her with oxygen.
Ferschweiler estimates the unidentified woman was in her 30s. By the time an ambulance arrived she was breathing again. She was taken to a hospital but her condition was not immediately known.
The governor’s chief spokeswoman, Nkenge Harmon Johnson, says the governor initially saw someone along the edge of the street who seemed to be trying to resuscitate a woman.
