NES linemen give CPR — and a moving gesture — to a dying man

As the victim was loaded into the ambulance, power company workers stood nearby holding their hard hats over their hearts

Brad Schmitt
The Tennessean

Correction: A previous version of this story contained a misspelling of the name Bassow.

Tricia Bassow got out of the shower, got dressed and went to go check on her husband on the morning of April 11 in their East Nashville home.

Michael Bassow, who'd battled cancer for nearly a year, had been feeling really sick lately after a series of infections wiped him out.

Tricia Bassow found him on the couch, not breathing. Her stomach sank.

“I knew things were pretty dire,” she said.

Tricia Bassow, with her son, Wyatt, beside her, wanted to say thanks to five Nashville Electric Service workers — Jeremy Pilkerton, Zack Miller, John Harris, Trent McCormack and Thomas Patt — who tried to save her husband with CPR on April 11. Tricia was moved when the lineman took off their hard hats and put them over their hearts while her husband was loaded into the ambulance. Wednesday, April 17, 2019, in Nashville, Tenn.

Terrified, she grabbed her cellphone and called 911. While the phone was ringing, a Nashville Electric Service lineman knocked on her storm door because the front door was open.

I’m from the power company, he said. The electricity is going off in this area for repairs.

“This is not a good time,” Tricia Bassow said, frantic. “We’re having an emergency! It's my husband!”

The NES lineman, Jeremy Pilkerton, a 13-year veteran of the power company, looked into the house, saw a man slumped on the couch and shouted for his coworkers to come inside and bring a defibrillator. 

Tricia and Michael Bassow with their son, Wyatt, 14, at a wedding in October last year.

Within seconds, five lineman lifted Michael Bassow off the couch onto the floor and started CPR, which NES employees are trained in every year. Within a minute, another lineman had attached a defibrillator to Bassow's chest.

When a 911 operator answered, Tricia Bassow, 50, got flustered after the operator asked several questions. “Is someone coming over?” she insisted. “I need someone right now!”

And she thrust her phone into one of the lineman’s hands so he could answer any other questions.

Filled with worry and fear — “all the emotions” — Tricia Bassow still marveled and how quickly and calmly the men worked on her husband.

When Michael Bassow, 48, was loaded into an ambulance, the NES workers stood quietly nearby, their hard hats held over their hearts.

The gesture floored Tricia Bassow.

“It was so incredibly touching. It was just so sweet that they cared enough,” she said, choking up.

“It was so respectful. Who does that? Who does that? Just unbelievable.”

The crew continued to put up a new power pole, and when Bassow returned from the hospital several hours later, she thanked them and told them her husband died.

"It just made us feel real down," Pilkerton said. "It was rough."

Although devastated by the loss of her husband, Bassow said she is grateful for the linemen's efforts, calling them "God sent."

Nashville Electric Service lineman John Harris gets a hug from Tricia Bessow, as she thanks the five NES workers who tried to save her husband with CPR.

"It brings me so much peace to know everything that could’ve been done was done," she said. "And I'm so thankful they're trained to do that, too." 

Bassow hugged each man Wednesday afternoon after they'd gathered at her house for pictures for this story.

She said she also plans an NES breakfast Thursday to recognize National Lineman Appreciation Day.

NES will give special recognition at the breakfast to Pilkerton and his four colleagues who helped with CPR on Michael Bassow.

The other lineman are Zack Miller, 30, who has five years with NES; John Harris, 39, 12 years; Trent McCormack, 31, seven years; and Thomas Patt, 27, two years.

Do you know someone else who has done something extraordinary while at work? Reach Brad Schmitt at brad@tennessean.com or 615-259-8384 or on Twitter @bradschmitt.