Rocco Morabito took this picture in 1967. It’s dubbed “The Kiss of Life.” It shows J.D. Thompson, a utility worker, giving mouth-to-mouth to his coworker Randall G. Champion after he passed out after touching a low voltage wire.
While doing normal maintenance, Champion accidentally touched one of the low-voltage cables at the top of the utility pole. His safety gear kept him from falling, and Thompson, who had been climbing up below him, swiftly got to him and gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
He couldn’t do CPR because of the situation, but he kept breathing into Champion’s lungs until he felt a weak pulse. Then he unbuckled his harness and carried Champion down on his shoulder. Thompson and another worker gave Champion CPR on the ground, and when paramedics got there, he was somewhat better. He later made a full recovery.
Champion not only lived through this owing to Thompson, but he also lived for 35 more years. He passed away in 2002 at the age of 64. Thompson is still alive today.
In July 1967, Rocco Morabito was travelling on West 26th Street for another job when he discovered Champion hanging from the pole. He called for an ambulance and got his camera. Morabito recounts, “I walked by these men working and went on to my job.” “I took eight pictures during the strike.” I thought I’d go back and see if I could find another picture.
But as Morabito comes back to the linemen, he hears screams. I looked up and saw this man hanging down. Oh my God. I had no idea what to do. I instantly took a picture. J.D. Thompson was racing towards the flagpole. I called an ambulance from my automobile. I got back to the pole, and J.D. was breathing into Champion. I backed off a lot till I hit a home and couldn’t go any farther. I snapped another photo. Then I heard Thompson yell, “He’s breathing!”
Morabito took a lot of pictures while Thompson tried to save his friend’s life by giving him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Randall remembered that Champion “started gasping and seemed to come back.” Champion had to go to the hospital because of burns.
“The Kiss of Life” by Rocco Morabito received the Pulitzer Prise for Spot News Photography in 1968. Newspapers all across the world printed the picture. Morabito was born in Port Chester, New York, but moved to Florida when he was 5. By the time he was 10, he was working as a newsboy for the Jacksonville Journal.
He was a ball-turret gunner on a B-17 in the Army Air Forces during World War II. He went back to the Jacksonville Journal after the war and began his career as a photographer by taking pictures of sports events for the publication.
He worked for the Journal for 42 years, 33 of those as a photographer. He retired in 1982. Morabito passed away on April 5, 2009, while under hospice care.
For 30 years, lineman Randall Champion and J.D. Thompson worked for JEA. The two stayed friends and even got to know Morabito well.
In 1988, the three were photographed together to mark the last day of publishing of the Jacksonville Journal. Champion was in the hospital recovering from bypass surgery at the time.
The lines above are not High Voltage (HV) but Low Voltage (50–1000 Volts). The worker is fixing a transformer. To operate on the HV component of a transformer, you need an Access Permit (the name may differ from country to country). This is a document that says you have to follow a particular set of steps to switch off the electricity.
A High Voltage (HV) flash makes a large fireball and burns a lot of people. The clothes and hair burn off completely. There is no way to save someone who has been shocked by high voltage in the industry since it takes too long to switch off the power and get them to safety. If they get blown off the pole and get help immediately away, they have the best chance.
The American Heart Association (AHA) no longer recommends mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, as it is no longer needed. One of the main reasons the AHA made ventilation less important in the newest resuscitation guidelines was to make it easier and more likely for people who aren’t trained to do CPR to do it.
The tests indicated that a lot of people wouldn’t do CPR on a stranger because they didn’t want to give them mouth-to-mouth. They want more individuals to do chest compressions, which can be highly helpful on their own, by making them less important.
(Photo credit: Rocco Morabito / Jacksonville Journal).
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