School nurse honored for saving life of former police chief at Pennsylvania mall

UNIONTOWN, Pa. — A Pennsylvania nurse was honored Monday for saving the life of a former police chief at the Uniontown Mall.

Beth Ann Smith was given a special award at a ceremony at the Uniontown Area School Board meeting.

The school nurse was at Zales Jewelry with her fiance on Valentine’s Day, when she saw a man in the store who was having a heart attack. She said former Connellsville Police Chief James Bielecki didn’t have a pulse, and she immediately did CPR.

“I’ve never had to do CPR on anybody before other than a mannequin, so it was definitely, definitely scary. But it was so worth it in the end because he’s still here, and that was God’s plan for both of us that night, and I’m just glad that it worked out," Smith said.

Once EMTs arrived, they used a defibrillator to get his heart going again.

Cox Media Group