“He Was Dead on the Pole… Until His Friend Did the Unthinkable”

Time is stopped in some photos.

Your heart is stopped by others.

Both were recorded in a single frame in 1967.

Decades later, a scene that still evokes strong emotions was captured on camera by Jacksonville Journal photojournalist Rocco Morabito.

The artwork, which depicts a man saving another in the most unlikely of situations, became known as “The Kiss of Life.”

It all started on a typical workday.

In Jacksonville, Florida, two utility lineman were working on mending lines far above the streets.

Traffic hummed below, the sun was merciless, and the air was heavy.

Then, suddenly, the routine became lethal.

A low-voltage wire came into contact with one of the males.

A sharp crack was later heard, and then there was silence, according to witnesses.

After tensing up, his body relaxed and hung helplessly in his harness.

He appeared to have gone from the ground.

His boots kicked quietly against the pole saturated with creosote, his arms hung free, and his head sagged.

His buddy didn’t pause to consider or wait for orders.

He was aware that every second counted.

With his heart racing, he clambered up the pole as if gravity weren’t stopping him.

The truth was evident when he arrived at his colleague: there was no time, no breath, and no heartbeat.

Then the unimaginable happened.

Unable to perform chest compressions while pinned to a narrow wooden crossbar, he put his mouth to his friend’s and gave him life—right there, clinging to the pole, thirty feet above the ground.

In startled silence, the onlookers watched.

Death was being kissed away by a man.

The initial breaths appeared to disappear into thin air.

The victim remained motionless.

Desperate, the rescuer withdrew, then leaned back in.

Hope against hope, breath after breath.

Then—something.

A flash under the epidermis.

The smallest pulse.

An adrenaline rush occurred.

The lineman lifted his unconscious comrade onto his shoulder with seemingly insurmountable strength and started the perilous descent.

With his friend’s weight bearing down on him and his boots scuffing on splinters, every stride down that pole felt like a struggle.

They would both fall to the ground with a single misstep.

At last, they succeeded.

Another colleague joined him on the dirt below.

Refusing to give up, they hammered his chest together, pumping air into his lungs.

In the distant, sirens cried out.

The man’s chest was rising and falling once more when paramedics arrived.

He was in stable yet serious condition.

He survived despite all odds.

He opened his eyes in the hospital a few days later and eventually recovered completely.

As a private miracle among coworkers, the story might have ended there.

However, Morabito’s image altered everything.

He had seen the disturbance while driving by on his way to another assignment.

He reached for his camera and took the picture that encapsulated not just the rescue but also the bravery and love of people.

In addition to winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1968, it image captivated hearts.

It is still discussed in classrooms, taught in journalism schools, and hushed anytime someone inquires about what it means to be human.

For “The Kiss of Life” is more than just a photograph of two lineman standing atop a pole.

It’s evidence that sometimes all it takes for life to fall apart is one person who just won’t let go.