photo by: Derek Redd

Uba Maung, circulation district manager for The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register, had to spring into action in an emergency situation recently when filling in on a delivery route.

WHEELING — What was supposed to be a simple newspaper delivery turned into managing an emergency situation for a circulation district manager of The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register.

District Manager Uba Maung will occasionally fill in for carriers who are on vacation or sick when there are no other substitutes available. Often, he and his colleagues will sub in and deliver to a single stop on a route that would not be hit otherwise.

When one of the carriers, Gus Barros, went on vacation to Chile, Maung filled in for one of his morning stops Tuesday through Thursday.

At 9 a.m. on the first day of the delivery, Maung headed out to the stop at an apartment complex on National Road.

As he headed to the top floor of the building, Maung heard a noise that disturbed him.

“I heard a loud banging and then a man yelling, ‘Help me! Help me!’ very loudly,” he described.

Initially, Maung assumed there was a domestic dispute in the neighboring apartment to his delivery stop. Springing into action, he knocked on the door of the apartment he was delivering to for backup.

“I thought I should get someone, so I went to the customer and asked, ‘Did you hear anything?'” said Maung. “They said no, but I asked them to please stay for a moment and listen. Then they heard the noise, too.”

As soon as Maung informed them what was happening, the neighbor’s immediate reaction was to go and help the man. The neighbor mustered up the courage to open the door to the apartment a “quarter of an inch” so the two could determine what was happening.

What they found was a man laying face down on the floor in a room that Maung described as appearing “like a hurricane had run through it.”

When the man saw the two around the door, he begged for help. Maung recalled the man looking as if he was in serious pain, as he never ceased his banging or yelling during their interaction.

“I was shocked,” Maung said. “I don’t know how long that man had been lying there in pain. It was obvious he was in a lot of pain, so even though I had never called 911 before, I knew I had to.”

Acting quickly, Maung dialed 911 and put the neighbor on the phone to give the dispatcher the information about their location.

“I’ve just never done anything like this before,” Maung said. “The whole time, I was just thinking, “I need to do something,”

Before emergency services showed up and Maung could determine what was wrong, he had to finish the delivery and leave.

“I was pretty shaken up the rest of the day,” noted Maung.

On Wednesday, Maung returned to the neighbor’s door, not only to deliver the paper, but to learn what happened. After knocking and receiving no response, Maung returned on Thursday and got his answer.

“I had to keep knocking because I needed to know what happened and if he got some help,” said Maung. “That’s all I needed to know.”

The neighbor explained that Emergency Medical Services and the Wheeling Police Department came to the apartments after Maung left. The man was then escorted out of the building by emergency services.

With a clear grasp of what happened and his deliveries to the stop going “smoothly” for the rest of the week, Maung feels relieved that the incident did not turn fatal.

While he is satisfied to have an ending to the story, Maung still wonders what would have happened if he had not handled the delivery route that day.

“It’s a lot to think about and comprehend,” said Maung. “Looking back on it, I’m glad I acted quickly to get that man some help.”

Wheeling Intelligencer Operations Manager Dave Kahlbaugh was not surprised by his co-worker’s actions when Maung recounted the incident to him.

“That’s the kind of person he is,” noted Kahlbaugh. “He steps up to the plate for someone in distress. When someone needs that help, he’ll get it for them. He’s a good man.”