I'll wager 24 hours before Time Warner fires him, citing insurance and liability concerns in the finest mealymouthed corporatespeak.

Thank goodness it was Time Warner; if it'd been Comcast he'd had run the kid over while cursing at him... and then several people here would quickly type up defenses for the Comcast guy's actions. :)

And Time/Warner suspended him for the liability he assumed for the company by turning it into an ambulance service. They plan on following up by billing Ms. Rodriguez for services rendered. JK

Seems that's the way things are headed sometimes though. Kudos to Audain for doing the right thing.

@tinmus

Seems we were thinking the same thing at the same time.

@QrazyQat: Comcast was already rushing some other kid to the hospital?

Score one for human decency!

What a heartwarming story. If this gentleman gets disciplined in any way, I'm sure he'll have jobs offers galore in (pardon the expression) a New York minute.

I hope all you above me are wrong.

Then again reading Consumerist stamps most of my hopes out.

We'll see... I've had fairly good TWC service, so hopefully they'll see this as a positive PR thing... you know, the friendly neighborhood cable guy sort of thing.

@flamincheney: Hivemind, but I seriously hope that Time/Warner will applaud this man for his judgment, as we are.

Meanwhile, John in Queens was cussing out a Time/Warner CSR because his rep didn't show up in the four hour window.

How soon before he gets fired?

Good one on that guy!

Hopefully TWC recognizes his efforts to be a good human being.

@flamincheney: +1, and most likely very true

He definitely will be fired. No way around that. Especially when he basically implies he broke the speed limit. But what is really strange about this story was that this woman picked up her kid and ran outside screaming. What if no one was nearby? Shouldn't she have just called 911? Isn't a situation like this the reason 911 was created? Was there a reason she couldn't call 911?

@lidor7: I second that.

Nice to know that some people will help in a life threatening situation without worrying about it violating company policy.

@Corporate_guy: I dunno. Ambulances in that area are slow? 911 is busy in that area? She just panicked?

@Corporate_guy: Sometimes people just freak out and don't do the smart thing in an emergency. It happens.

Audain is to be commended for putting basic humanity above "corporate policy."

The optimist in me wants to believe that TWC will take this for what it is, good PR and leave it at that. I scoured the web news agencies looking for a story where Time Warner might have responded, but no dice. Oh well, here's hoping.

Here's hoping he is publicly commended by TWC, But I will put $1 out there that he will be terminated within 24 hours.

With aforementioned "finest mealymouthed corporatespeak".

Corporations have zero tolerance for people displaying common decency and humanity on company time.

That's a nice story. A nice compliment to the usual company-or-company-representative-screws-you-over story. Keep them coming!

@flamincheney: Thats what I was thinking, aside from him being fired/suspended/sued by someone.

I think firing him is good for another reason also. Sure it was good he was there but if TW commended him on his good deed, just think of all the idiots that would follow suit for non-emergency cases. Too many people have a terrible gauge at what is an actual emergency. Talk to a 911 rep, they would probably agree it would be bad if all kinds of other people started doing this because not all of the emergency calls they get are even emergencies.

So I don't think time warner shoud fire him, but they can't commend him either.

If he gets fired, maybe there's a job for him as a BB&B manager...

I'm just glad it worked out. I couldn't imagine what would have happened should the child have died in transit.

Yeah, I assumed he would get fired when I opened this story.

The kid's brain was about to melt, so who knows what would have happened if they waited too much longer. But hopefully this guy will become a police officer.

"My brain wasn't registering what was happening at the time," Audain, 27, said Saturday. "There was a child involved. I had no time to think."

No, I'd say your brain registered exactly what was happening, and you had exactly the right thoughts. Good man.

Also I think these two would make a cute couple... wonder if they're single?

If that had been a Brighthouse employee it would have ended up differently. He would have jumped in his truck only to to have it not start. Then he would have ordered another truck to be delivered but it would take 4 days. Then when it arrived it wouldn't start either due to it being a refurbished unit. Then another guy would show up claiming to be a "supervisor" only to have him spend 4 hours changing the tires, confident that it will fix the problem. While they were waiting, they just flagged down a DirecTV truck who was finally able to get them to the hospital.

If the cableman had this to say when he was late for his appointment, I would not complain.

I seriously doubt he will be fired and in most cases will be complimented. I think its funny on here to hear so many people complain about a company when compared to every other cable service that gets reported on here they seem to be the most upstanding.

Ms. Beasley:

Please add an Albert Audain to our "Do Not Hire" database please.

Thanks, Steve.

Steven Temares
CEO
Bed, Bath and Beyond

I spent two years at TWC installer out of the northern Cincinnati office, and while I doubt he would be fired (especially after the publicity over the matter) I'm willing to bet there is a quiet memo released to all the managers to quietly tell their drivers not to do stuff like that. While it was a judgment call and it all worked out for the best, I'm certain there will be other instances where vans would be used for non-emergency purposes, and someone would DEFINITELY get fired for that.

They took fire extinguishers out of our vans while I was working there because our guys were using them to put out car fires and other stuff they happened across, and the company got sick of having to deal with refilling them. Gives you some idea...

My aunt lived over in Woodside until 2 years ago. The average response time to an ambulance call was at least 10 minutes. Then the EMS techs take up to 10 minutes more before even doing anything - usually doing paper work or loading/unloading god knows what. By the time the ambulance would have gotten the baby to a hospitol the time warner tech would have had the baby there for 20 minutes or more.

@timmus: Yep! That's the way corporate America seems to be working. First charges are filed for the BB&B manager who didn't do the right thing, then this poor guy will be canned for doing the right thing and creating a liability. Sheesh.

Well, Adrian, thanks for being an awesome person.

@gmoney: ROFLMAO

@sinfuly Delicious: Unfortunately, in this case, the actions of one employee, however awesome they are, do not necessarily make the company as a whole better. TWC the company still sucks.

Firing him would be seriously bad PR. His job is secure regardless of how corporate feels about it until the "good PR" period dies down, at least. By firing him, they'd pretty much invert the effect on their public image. Three months down the road...

I do applaud the driver for his decision. Screw the job, there's a child/person in danger that needs help, and there's no legitimate reason not to help them. Yeah, TW gets to foot the bill for gas and lost man-hours, but if they have an issue with that they need to just take it on the chin. No one should be forced into a situation where they have to choose employment over "the right thing." However, Time Warner as a corporation is getting no "brownie points" what-so-ever from me in this case. Their driver did the right thing. What does that have to do with the company as a whole? If his behavior had actually been corporate policy, and all of their drivers had been told flat out to drop what they're doing to do the right thing, that would be different.

It isn't corporate policy, and I'll venture a guess that it never will be. TW Driver +1, Time Warner ±0.

Maybe there should be legislation 180 degrees from where it seems to be today - Companies don't want to create a liability *in case it hits them in the wallet*... So how about the Feds put a little tax break or something out there for individuals (and in rare cases, companies) that are publicly commended for serious human decency?

I know, I know... Bribe people into doing the right thing? Hell, it's a stupid way to go about it, but it might lead to more good things happening, or being allowed to happen, regardless the "good" of the reason.

Since this happened over two weeks ago, it's too late for him to be fired "the next day." And I really doubt that he'll get in trouble (though I agree that the quiet memo discouraging such behavior may well go out); he's given every late cable guy in the company the benefit of a doubt they didn't previously have.

I too am kind of wondering if there was a specific reason why the mom took this approach or if she just panicked. It says she's studying to be a police officer, so I'd hope it wasn't panic, but your reaction can be very different when it's your own kid, too.

For those of you who think the driver did the wrong thing, I hope you never experience a situation where your child is having a seizure. The poor woman probably had no idea what was going on, and she did the first thing that came to mind. My daughter had a seizure when she was one month old - it turned out to be RSV - a nasty virus that creates a pediatric version of bronchitis. I'm eternally grateful that the paramedics made it to me in time, but she was in serious condition for a week. (She's now 6 and doing great.)

@Rectilinear Propagation: She may live in Flavor Flav's town, where 911 is apparently a joke.

Anyway, good for the driver. I would hope most people would help others. I know they wouldn't but I would hope they would.

While I don't think he should be fired (at least I hope they don't), Time Warner can't been seen complimenting him either. As (a rather cynical) somebody pointed out in a comment to the original article, he may have put others in danger if he was speeding. They commend him, somebody else at the company does something like this that doesn't turn out so well, and you have solid grounds for a lawsuit.

It might sound like a good "business" decision for the driver not to have helped, but it is a very crappy "human" decision. I say kudos to the guy and TWC ought to just let it be. Maybe they have as I think this was a few days ago. It's nice to hear the good guy stories on here once in awhile also.

TWC is probably taking his heroism "very seriously"

joking aside...the man is a hero.

Audain FTW!

Kudos to that employee.
@timmus: I give him 12 hours.

All y'all's who are exercising your psychic powers predicting "he will be fired" don't understand why businesses fire employees who have done heroic things. That generally happens when there is a specific policy, meant to protect employees or customers from getting hurt, and the employee ignores it. For example, bank tellers are taught not to resist or argue with a bank robber; the safe thing to do is to hand over the money. A bank teller who vaults over the counter and beats up the bank robber may be a "hero" for stopping a bank robbery and apprehending a felon - but she's an idiot for putting herself and the other bank customers at risk.

Rushing a child to the hospital is hardly in that class of fortunately-heroic-rather-than-tragic behavior. The only policy mentioned in the article is that nobody except a TW employee can ride in the van.

@Corporate_guy: She may very well live in one of those neighborhoods where pizza delivery is faster than getting a 911 response.

@MrBill38: Honestly, the corporate policy makes tons of sense. TWC drivers shouldn't be driving their friends around, or picking up their kid from school, or any other nonsense in the company van. Not only does it probably have any number of sharp/heavy tools that would hurt a person during an accident (opening up TWC to being sued), but likely there aren't enough seatbelts, etc. Having a drivers-only policy is just good sense.

That being said, there's probably an exception-to-the-rule, no-dickheads policy as well. While adrenaline probably made his impressions and memory of the incident a little suspect (finish a 10 minute trip in 2 minutes? unlikely), he probably should be at least warned (if not reprimanded) for some reckless driving. There's a reason that police cars and ambulances have lights and sirens. Clearly there's not enough information in the article, but being a Good Samaritan doesn't mean you should run red lights, etc, and put the other drivers in danger.

Kudos to the TW rep. It's refreshing to see common sense preclude "company policy" in an emergency.

Just out of curiosity, did he talk the baby into a premium channel or two on the way to the ER?

Hopefully he wont get disciplined, he did the right thing.

Bed Bad and Beyond(sense), are you watching?