The Kiss of Life - A utility worker giving mouth-to-mouth to co-worker after he contacted a low voltage wire, 1967

This photo titled "The Kiss of Life" by Rocco Morabito, taken in 1967 by J.D. A utility worker named Thompson was hired by co-worker Randall G. Champion giving mouth-to-mouth after fainting after being exposed to a low voltage line.

They were doing routine maintenance when Champion brushed off one of the low voltage lines at the top of the utility pole. His protective shield prevented the fall, and Thompson, who was climbing under him, quickly approached him and resuscitated him mouth-to-mouth.

He was unable to perform CPR given the circumstances, but continued to breathe into Champion's lungs until he felt a slight pulse, then unbuckled his harness and landed on his shoulder with him. Thompson and another worker administered CPR on the ground, and by the time paramedics arrived, Champion was moderately resuscitated, eventually making a full recovery.

What's even more incredible is that Champion not only survived thanks to Thompson, but lived an additional 35 years. He died in 2002 at the age of 64. Thompson is still alive today.

Rocco Morabito was driving on West 26th Street on another assignment in July 1967 when he saw Champion swinging from a pole. He called an ambulance and grabbed his camera. "I passed out these guys at work and went to work," Morabito says. “I took eight pictures on the strike. I thought I'd go back and see if I could get another picture out".

But when Morabito goes back to the lineman, "I heard a shout. I looked up I saw this guy hanging down. Bap re dad. I didn't know what to do. I immediately took a picture. JD Thompson Were running towards the pole. I went to my car and called the ambulance. I got back to the pole and was breathing in JD Champion. I backtracked, until I hit a house and I couldn't go on. I took another picture. Then I heard Thompson shout: He's breathing!

Morabito snapped a series of photographs as Thompson struggled to save his friend's life by giving him oral resuscitation. In the end, the champion "gasped and started coming back," Randall remembered. The champion went to the hospital with burns.

Rocco Morabito won the 1968 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography for "The Kiss of Life". This picture was published in newspapers around the world. Born in Port Chester, New York, Morabito moved to Florida at age 5, and was working as a newsboy selling papers for the Jacksonville Journal by age 10.

He served as a ball-turret gunner on a B-17 in the Army Air Forces in World War II. After the war, he returned to the Jacksonville Journal and began his photography career shooting sporting events for the paper.

He worked for the journal for 42 years, 33 of them as a photographer, until retiring in 1982. Morabito died in hospice care on April 5, 2009.

Lineman Randall Champion and JD Thompson worked for JEA for 30 years. The two remained friends and even became close with Morabito.

The trio were photographed together in 1988 to mark the final day of publication of the Jacksonville Journal—even though Champion was still in the hospital recovering from bypass surgery at the time.

The lines above are low voltage (50-1000 volts) not high voltage (HV). Employee working on transformer. To work on the HV part of a transformer, you need an access permit (name may change with countries), a document that follows a strict set of procedures for turning off power.

A high voltage (HV) flash causes massive burns and a huge fireball. Clothes get destroyed by burning and hair gets burnt. In industry, there is no rescue procedure for HV shock, because by the time it takes time to turn off the power to safely evacuate the victim, they have already been burned. Their best chance is if they are detonated and treated at the exact same time.

Today mouth-to-mouth resuscitation is unnecessary and the American Heart Association (AHA) no longer recommends its use. A big factor in the AHA's decision to downplay the importance of ventilation in the latest resuscitation guidelines was to make it easier and more likely for spectators to actually perform CPR.

Studies have shown that many people will not perform CPR on a stranger because of the mouth-to-mouth part. By downplaying the importance, they hope that more people will do chest compressions, which in itself can be very effective.