A nurse and marine jump to man's aid after he collapsed at Jackson Kroger Grocery store

A nurse and marine jump to man's aid after he collapsed at Jackson Kroger store.

After a man collapsed at the Kroger on West University Parkway on Thursday, a nurse and marine came to his aid and performed CPR.

A routine trip to the grocery store turned into an emergency situation after a man collapsed in a Jackson Kroger Thursday.

Ray Lipford, from Lexington, was shopping at the West University Parkway store at around 11:30 a.m. when he saw the man fall.

"He actually just hit the floor," Lipford said. "No warning, no grabbing his chest. Just collapsed on the floor."

Lipford, a retired Marine, started performing CPR with the help of a Kroger nurse until emergency medical services arrived and took the man to Jackson General Hospital. He is still being treated there as of Tuesday.

Lipford said he knew how to do CPR because of his military experience and has done it several times. But he is older, he said, and he couldn't keep it up alone for long.

He said the nurse deserves to be recognized for stepping up — when he asked the crowd of between 20 and 30 people at the store if anyone knew how to do CPR, she was the only other person in the room that had the training.

"She was instrumental in the man making it," Lipford said.

Multiple representatives from Kroger confirmed that a Kroger nurse performed CPR on the man, but the nurse could not be reached for comment.

Lipford said this incident is just one example of how imperative it is for people to be trained in CPR. In this situation, he said, it was fortunate that the Kroger clinic was there.

"Really, people need to be more apt at this training," Lipford said.

The man's family did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Reach Cassandra Stephenson at ckstephens@jacksonsun.com or at (731) 694-7261. Follow Cassandra on Twitter at @CStephenson731