Taxpayer Has Heart Attack While on Phone With Tax Man, Who Calls 911 and Saves Taxpayer's Life

Lexington Herald-Leader, Tax Worker Helps Save Taxpayer's Life:

They say death and taxes are inevitable. But in the case of Earl Phillips, taxes may have helped save the Adair County man's life.

When Phillips called the state Department of Revenue last month to get answers about his state income tax bill, the faceless Frankfort bureaucrat who called him back saved his life. ...

Phillips, an Adair County construction worker, received a tax notice in late May with [Natalie] Brown's name and phone number. When Brown returned the call he'd placed, she noticed that Phillips, 60, seemed out of sorts. "I noticed he was breathing really heavily," Brown said Friday. "I could tell something was wrong." ...

Phillips' breathing seemed to get worse as minutes ticked by, Brown said. ... So Brown verified she had the correct address for Phillips — which was on his tax forms — and called Adair County 911.

Shortly after that, emergency crews arrived and took Phillips, who was home alone, to a local hospital. He was later transferred to a Louisville hospital, where doctors put a stent, or tube, in his heart. He had a 90 percent blockage in one of his arteries, Phillips said. ...

Brown's boss, Bruce Nix, the Director of Individual Income Tax for the Department of Revenue, said this is the first time in his 21 years with the department of revenue that he can recall that a revenue employee may have saved the life of a taxpayer. ...

Oh, and did Phillips ever get that tax question answered? "Yes, I did," Phillips said Friday.

(Hat Tip: Jim Maule.)