Voter's first question after losing consciousness: 'Did I vote?'
A nurse performed CPR on a voter at a Michigan polling center, and when the man awoke he had only two concerns.
SOUTHFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. - Ty Houston had heard jokes about votes being registered by dead people. But what he witnessed early this week was no laughing matter.
Houston, a 48-year-old home care registered nurse, was filling out his absentee ballot at township offices Monday, when he detected something wrong with an elderly couple sitting at a nearby table working on their ballots.
"His wife, who was helping him fill out the ballot, asked him a couple of questions but he didn't respond," Houston told the Detroit News. "She screamed for help and I went over to see what I could do."
Houston told the newspaper he laid the man on the floor. "He had no heartbeat and he wasn't breathing," Houston said. "I started CPR, and after a few minutes, he revived and started breathing again."
But what really stunned Houston was what the man then asked his wife.
"The first question he asked was 'Did I vote?'"
Houston told the newspaper that the man -- who had a tracheotomy in his throat -- took a few more breaths and then told his wife there were two things important to him: "That I love you and that I finished what I came here to do … vote."
Emergency personnel took the couple to a hospital. Township clerk Sharon Tischler confirmed the story to the Detroit News on Tuesday but said she didn't know the names of the couple. Houston also didn't get their names.
