14 Nov 2024
A team from SADC’s refuse contractors Veolia became local heroes after their quick-thinking actions saved a colleague’s life.
Former nurse and driver, Matko Spondreht and co-worker Scott Franklin were recognised as the Employees of the Quarter following their actions on September 2.
The Veolia St Albans refuse crew had been out on their routine round when loader Daniel Gardiner complained to the driver of feeling unwell.
Matko, who was driving quickly and safely pulled to the side of the road and when Daniel became unresponsive, took immediate control of the situation and put his medical training into action.
He instructed colleague Scott to call 999 while he checked Daniel for breathing and a pulse. Finding neither, Matko laid Daniel out on the seats of the vehicle and started performing life-saving CPR. After some time and the sustained efforts from Matko, Daniel regained consciousness and started breathing again.
After taking some time off to recover, Daniel has made a full recovery and returned to work with a phased approach, performing light duties for the time being.
Daniel has since thanked his colleagues: “I will forever be extremely grateful and there are not enough words to say thank you to Matko for the responsive work that saved my life and kept me alive”.
Matko said: “Our primary focus is serving the community and looking after the area and people around us. I never once thought that would be one of the crew too! I am really glad Daniel is back at work, doing what he loves and we are incredibly grateful for the support we have received from St Albans.”
Awarding Matko and Scott with their Employee of the Quarter Award, Mark Southgate, operations manager at Veolia St Albans Municipal said: “We’re incredibly proud of our people who do a brilliant job for the local community week in and week out and our Employee of the Quarter award gives us a chance to recognise their everyday greatness.
“Matko’s heroics made this an easy decision and we are extremely grateful for the work of him and his team, going above and beyond for each other and the community.”
SADC leader Cllr Paul De Kort added: “I was delighted to meet Matko in person and thank him for saving his colleague Dan’s life. He is a true community hero.
“We are all grateful for what he did and it was nice to meet Dan as well and see that he has fully recovered and back working.”
