Baxter employee saved colleagues, gave life

Please pause to appreciate Henry Astilla, who died Friday at Baxter Healthcare's Atwater Village, CA, plant.

The LA Times reports that Astilla found two workers collapsed, overcome by ethanol fumes, inside the four-foot-tall, five-foot-diameter blood plasma tank they were cleaning at the plasma fractionation plant. He called for emergency help and then went himself to their aid.

Paramedics found Astilla without a pulse, apparently attempting to help one of the workers out of the tank. He was transported to a hospital where he died. His two colleagues, as yet unnamed, were initially reported in critical condition. Astilla was 33 and lived in L.A. - George Miller (email)