June 2023 Employees of the Month: Maintenance employees give co-worker’s heart a jump-start

Last month, Miami-Dade Aviation Department (MDAD) Facilities Maintenance employees Alberto Narvaez and Douglas Brunelle were driving on the MIA airfield when they came across a co-worker who needed a different kind of jump-start. As they approached MIA’s midfield tunnel, they noticed an employee lying on the ground face down and motionless and two other maintenance workers, Ronald Flores and Wilton Ordonez, who had also just pulled over and were standing next to the person.

After quickly finding out from Ronald and Wilton what they knew, Douglas helped them turn the employee over so he was face up while Alberto called Miami-Dade Police and Fire-Rescue for assistance. The unresponsive employee turned out to be MDAD Airside Division Supervisor Dino Leonardi.

Thanks to Douglas’s military training, he quickly assessed Dino and realized he had no pulse and was not breathing. Douglas performed a chest compression a few times until Dino finally began to respond, regain awareness, open his eyes, and start breathing slightly. Shortly after, a Miami-Dade police officer arrived and started asking Dino some questions, to which Dino could only respond by slowly blinking his eyes. Thanks to the speedy reactions of the four men, Dino was transported to get more medical attention, after which he made a full recovery and was back to work a week later.

Because of their life-saving actions, Alberto, Douglas, Ronald and Wilton were named MIA’s June 2023 Employees of the Month.