- Kevin Tenkhoff, an AT&T worker from Missouri, saved Helen Buttermark’s life in October 2023 when the new homeowner suddenly collapsed
- Tenkhoff, who happened to arrive a few minutes early, performed CPR on the woman thanks to training he received through AT&T
- Buttermark, who tells PEOPLE she was dead for four minutes at one point during the ordeal, calls Tenkhoff her “guardian angel”
An AT&T worker from Missouri is exclusively opening up to PEOPLE about the day in October 2023 when he helped save a woman’s life while working in the field.
The day started off normally for Kevin Tenkhoff, who has worked with AT&T for 19 years. He was assigned to multiple jobs that day, including one at a home in Springfield that had recently been purchased by the Buttermark family.
Kenkhoff was a few hours early when he arrived at the home around 10 a.m. local time, Helen Buttermark tells PEOPLE.
Initially, she considered asking him to come back at 1 p.m., when he was originally scheduled to arrive, but instead allowed him to get to work. In hindsight, that was a life-saving decision.
Helen said she initially “felt 100% normal” and that she and her husband Ryan began chatting with a neighbor outside the home. Suddenly, she felt like she was going to faint.
“I reached out to my husband, and I grabbed his arm and I said, ‘Babe,’ and that’s all I can remember,” she tells PEOPLE. “From that point forward, that’s when it all started.”
Helen Tarli
Tenkhoff says he was outside behind the home when he suddenly heard yelling. After climbing up a hill, he spotted Helen down on the pavement as Ryan attempted chest compressions.
Tenkhoff quickly ripped off his work belt as he raced over to help, and took over upon reaching the unconscious woman. He had received CPR training through AT&T — and now his skills were being put to the test.
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Ryan called 911, and Tenkhoff continued chest compressions until local emergency crews arrived at the scene to take Helen away.
“Kevin had actually got me breathing,” Helen says. “I mean, I was actually getting oxygen and all of that, and I actually had mumbled some words. So I know I was back for a little bit anyways.”
AT&T
Helen tells PEOPLE she was dead for four minutes at one point during the ordeal. After arriving at the hospital, she learned Tenkhoff helped her avoid brain damage and was likely “instrumental in saving my life.”
“He saved a stranger’s life that day, and he didn’t have to,” she tearfully says. “He didn’t have to do any of it. So it was very remarkable, it was God’s timing that he was there.”
Helen was in the hospital for six days and had a defibrillator-like device surgically implanted in her heart.
The device helped restart her heart at least four more times until they were able to determine the cause of her sudden onset heart problems: a dead cell in her heart that would prevent it from properly pumping.
Helen underwent surgery in January to address the problem, but opted to keep the heart device in place. “What if this happens again?,” she explains.
Now, Tenkhoff “will always hold a special place” in her heart and she gets emotional whenever they connect.
Helen even recalls telling him, “You were put where you were at the time you were there. And I feel like it was a godsend. You’re kind of like my guardian angel … That’s the way I’m going to feel about you for the rest of my life.”
Ultimately, she hopes her story will remind others to “always have faith in humanity.”
“People will be there,” she says. “There are people that still care in this world, and will still help you, complete strangers, for absolutely nothing. They’ll just do it.”
Meanwhile, Tenkhoff is humbled by the experience. “There are no words to describe it whatsoever,” he tells PEOPLE. “It was great seeing how appreciative they were.”
