Quick-thinking UPS driver saves customer's life: 'There is no reason this man should be alive today'

A UPS driver’s split-second decision saved the life of a customer who had collapsed inside his home.

Todd Holland, a U.S. Navy veteran and 25-year UPS driver from Wilkesboro, N.C., knows his customers well, especially in the rural neighborhood of Crumpler, where he services 80 homes per day, according to Winston-Salem, N.C., news outlet WXII12.  

One male customer who always stands on his back porch and greets Holland with a smile was absent on Friday during a delivery. “I knocked on his door and called his name, but I figured he wasn’t home,” Holland, 55, a father of three tells Yahoo Lifestyle. However, on Tuesday, when Holland returned with a new package, the Friday delivery was still sitting on the porch.

“I had a bad feeling, so I knocked on the door and called his name,” Holland tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “I heard his Rottweiler barking, so I turned the door handle and entered the house. I saw his feet first.”

The man, who is in his 80s and lives alone, was lying incapacitated on the floor. “He moved his hand to get my attention and I called 911,” Holland tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “While we waited for the ambulance, he squeezed my hand and said, ‘I love you.'”

Through slurred speech, the man told paramedics he had lain on the floor for seven days before he was found by Holland. “His muscles were deteriorating and the EMTs said he otherwise wouldn’t have made it through the night,” the driver tells Yahoo Lifestyle.

According to WXII12, Holland made arrangements for the man’s dog until his owner heals. 

In the ambulance, Holland heard the man say, “That’s a true friend” and he takes that responsibility seriously, even working out a future buddy system to check on his customer.

“Everyone is busy, but we have to stay aware when something doesn’t seem right,” Holland tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “There is no reason this man should be alive today — he’sthe miracle.”