Alleghany man, now inmate, helps supervisor having seizure By CHARLES WILLIAMS Staff If you base your beliefs on what you've seen in movies or on television, you probably think that inmates on a road crew would bolt and run for freedom if their supervisor even looked the other way for a split second. But that's not necessarily the case. Just ask Danny Triplette, who supervises a road crew of three inmates in his position with the Department of Transportation. He owes his life to the efforts of three inmates from the Wilkes unit of the N.C. Department of Corrections, who stayed with him and revived him after he apparently suffered a seizure several weeks ago.

TRIPLETTE AND HIS CREW - Danny Triplette (right), who supervises a road crew for the Department of Transportation in Wilkes County, owes his life to inmates Steven Dalton (left) and Shane Gobel (center), as well as a third inmate, who revived him and called for medical assistance after Triplette suffered an apparent seizure on the road recently.

Triplette and three inmates - Shane Gobel of Lenoir, who has been at the local unit for eight months on charges of forgery and uttering, and who has 22 days left on his sentence; Steven Dalton of Alleghany County, who has served 12 months of his 15-month term; and a third inmate who was not available for the interview - were out on the road several weeks ago clearing branches and trees felled by an ice storm when the incident occurred. Triplette became ill on the way back to the North Wilkesboro DOT base and pulled the crew cab pickup off the side of the Bethany Ford Road.

"I looked over at Shane (who was sitting in the front seat) and told him that I didn't feel so good," Triplette recalls. "Shane asked me if it was that piece of pizza I had eaten earlier. I had told him it was a little tough, but I ate it anyway. I told him I didn't feel exactly right...and that's the last thing I remember."

"The next thing I remember, Danny had fallen over on me," Gobel said. "He had blood coming out of his mouth, and he wasn?t breathing. His face was black, and there was no pulse."

"I went around the truck, opened the door, and pulled him out onto the roadway while the other two (inmates) stopped traffic. I rolled him over on his side and started hitting him on his back. Finally he started coughing and came around, and I knew he was going to be all right." "It scared the tar out of me," said Dalton. "I thought he was having some sort of seizure. I've seen a lot of people have them."

Gobel also took the time to get Triplette?s radio and call to the DOT base to get help. Lee Ann Johnson and Melinda McNeil, clerks in the office, summoned County Maintenance Engineer Bob Bumgarner and Transportation Supervisor Steve Minton (who stayed with Triplette through the evening at the hospital) as they made the necessary call to the ambulance service to get medical crews in route.

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