20-year-old, off-duty firefighter uses CPR to save a Spencer County man's life during heart attack

A Southeast Bullitt firefighter didn't let his age stop him from saving a man's life at a county fair last month.

"I was tired," Clifton Vaught, who is from Spencer County, said. "I'm 63 years old. I'd come off a 12-hour shift."

Wednesday, June 12 was just an ordinary day for Clifton Vaught.

"All I remember that day is coming home from work and laying in my recliner," Clifton Vaught said.

After a quick afternoon nap, Clifton Vaught took his grandson, Wyatt, to the Shelby County Fair.

"I'm the one who has been teaching him how to drag race and everything," Clifton Vaught said.

As Clifton Vaught stood at the starting line of the dirt track, ready to cheer Wyatt on for a third time, he collapsed. He has been coaching Wyatt for years, and never misses a race.

"It scared me knowing what had happened and not remembering," Clifton Vaught said.

Clifton Vaught was having a widow-maker heart attack, one of the deadliest types of heart attacks. Reports from the American Heart Association show that only 12% of people suffering from a widow-maker heart attack outside the hospital survive.

"We immediately ran over there, not knowing what was wrong, or if my husband was going to make it. He was gasping for air," Wanda Vaught, Clifton's wife, said. "I just kept saying breathe, Clifton, breathe, breathe."

Through the tears, people starting pulling Wanda Vaught back.

"I was pulling up to start line and as I was pulling up, everybody kept yelling," Tatum Scharrer, who was at the Shelby County Fair to compete in a drag race, said.

20-year-old Scharrer, an off-duty Southeast Bullitt County firefighter, jumped into action. He had just finished a 12-hour shift with the Southeast Bullitt Fire Department.

"I was blown away, that someone that young had done what he had done," Clifton Vaught said.

"I kind of felt for a pulse, didn't feel nothing. We started CPR," Scharrer said. "I just did continuous compressions until EMS got there. I just kept telling myself to keep going until someone comes."

"I'm lucky. I'm very lucky," Clifton Vaught said.

Clifton Vaught credits Scharrer for saving his life on June 12, 2024.

"God sent someone to me on that particular day, and it was that young man right there," Clifton Vaught said. "I'm here because of him."

Scharrer said he was just doing his job.

"God put me in the right place at the right time to help Clifton. It all comes back to training," Scharrer said.

Wanda Vaught asked Scharrer if he would want to visit Clifton in the hospital.

"If not for him, my husband would not be here," Wanda Vaught said. "God puts people in our life and puts me in places when he knows we are going to need them."

He did and then Clifton Vaught went home eight days later, but it wasn't until the Fourth of July that he was able to meet Scharrer and say thank you.

"I'm vertical, not horizontal, so trust me, I am happy," Clifton Vaught said. "We're indebted to him."

"It was an honor in my opinion," Scharrer said.

Scharrer is from Taylorsville, Kentucky and comes from a firefighting family.

At age 15, Scharrer joined the Taylorsville Fire Department as a junior firefighter. When he turned 18, he started as a full-time firefighter.

On June 20th, the Shelbyville Police Department presented Scharrer with a letter of commendation.

"I sit on my porch. And I look at stuff. I look at life different," Clifton Vaught said. "The every day things do not matter anymore. It's God and family."

Clifton Vaught, who is also from Taylorsville, is a mechanic.

"He is PawPaw, coach, and mechanic to the grandchildren," Wanda Vaught said.

The heart attack happened days before a pre-planned Father's Day trip to the mountains. Clifton Vaught's family said they are thankful it happened at the Shelby County Fair, near a hospital, with access to cellular service.

"This happens to people all the time. You never expect it to happen to you. And a lot of people don't survive it and it just so happened he was there, and my husband was able to survive because of him," Wanda Vaught said.

"I'm just glad it got to work out for him and his family. They are all home," Scharrer said.

"He has became a part of the family," Clifton Vaught said.