Inmates at a Texas county jail broke out of a holding cell to help save a prison guard who appeared to be having a heart attack last month.
Nick Kelton, an inmate at the Parker County Jail in Weatherford, about 30 miles west of Fort Worth, was in a holding cell with at least eight other prisoners in the District Courts Building on June 23 when the incident occurred,
WFAA-TV reported.
The prisoners had been joking with the guard, who sat outside the lockup, when he fell unconscious and slumped over, Kelton told the television station.
"He just fell over," Kelton said. "Looked like an act. Could have died right there."
Kelton explained that he and other inmates started shouting for help and eventually managed to break out of the small holding cell, even though they realized it could lead to guards coming in with weapons.
"They thought it was a fight," Floyd Smith, another inmate, told WFAA-TV. "They thought we were taking over."
Parker County Sheriff's Office Capt. Mark Arnett
told NBC News that the inmates then grabbed the jailer's radio to get help. Deputies came down to the basement cell and called for emergency personnel.
Emergency crews performed CPR on the jailer and used a defibrillator.
"[The jailer] stopped breathing," Arnett explained. "They couldn't find a pulse on him."
The jailer declined to be identified and the medical condition that left him unconscious was not disclosed, according to NBC News. While the holding cell lock has now been fixed, Arnett said he was impressed with the inmates' effort to save his coworker.
"They definitely saved his life," he said, noting that the entire incident was captured on surveillance cameras. "There's no doubt about that."
The WFAA-TV video report has received more than 3.2 million views on YouTube.
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