On Monday 2nd September, the Veolia St Albans refuse crew were out on their routine round when loader Daniel Gardiner complained to the driver of feeling unwell. The driver, Matko Spondreht, quickly and safely pulled to the side of the road and when Daniel became unresponsive, Matko, who prior to working for Veolia had trained as a nurse, took immediate control of the situation and put his medical training into action.
He instructed Scott, the other colleague in the vehicle, to call 999 while Matko checked Daniel for breathing and a pulse. Upon 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, thankfully Daniel has made a full recovery and returned to work with a phased approach, performing light duties for the time being.
Daniel Gardiner, Veolia loader 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 Spondreht, Veolia driver 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.”
Councillor Paul De Kort, Leader of St Albans City and District Council said:
“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 for our recycling and waste contractor.
“Veolia’s crews do an important and tough job for our residents who will be impressed to hear about how well they look out for each other.”
