Cathedral parishioner puts his life in danger to save another

Corpus Christi Cathedral parishioner and lifelong Catholic Arthur “Artie” Barnes received a Citizens Certificate of Merit for “exceptional heroics” from Chief Markle of the Corpus Christi Police Department on March 24.

Artie traveled down SPID one early morning in September when he spotted a vehicle engulfed in black smoke. 

An ambulance happened by, but the police had not yet arrived at the scene. One man from the fire department rescue team attempted to rescue the man inside, but he could not find him due to the smoke-filled car. 

Artie crawled into the back of the burning vehicle, brushed crash debris away from the driver, and unbuckled him while dragging him over the car seat. Then the rescue team was able to help pull the man out of the car.

“I wasn’t thinking at that moment. I wasn’t thinking about anything other than getting the person out of that car,” he said. “His whole body was underneath a bunch of rubble. There wasn’t a dash; there wasn’t a steering wheel. You could barely see anything. I had to clear all that stuff off him to get down to his seatbelt.”

“The young man in his late teens hit a pole on the side of the freeway head-on, demolishing the whole engine compartment. It wasn’t even there,” Artie explained. “Surprisingly, he only had a scratch on his arm.”

“That day when I got home, I was emotional. I couldn’t stop thinking about that kid. He could have died, and I realized just how precious life is. Then I was thinking about being in that car, and it’s just a memory I don’t want to think about,” he said.

Artie is a lifelong parishioner of Corpus Christi Cathedral. It was where he was baptized, served as an altar boy for more than 12 years and attended his graduation ceremony. 

Barnes’ parents, Arthur and Karen Barnes, were married at the cathedral’s little chapel in the priest’s quarters (some years ago), and his father attended school there back when they had a school.

Artie attended Incarnate Word Academy from pre-kinder to high school. He attended the University of Incarnate Word in San Antonio and then received his Registered Nursing degree from the Baptist Health System also in San Antonio.

He also received an Apostolic blessing from Pope John Paul II. 

Artie attributes some of his life-saving instincts to his many years involved in Boy Scouts at St. Patrick in Corpus Christi. “Scouting was a big part of my life when I was growing up, and we learned a lot of emergency preparedness,” he said. 

Artie was also a registered nurse at many different hospital units.

“The truth is the situation that led me to being at that accident is extraordinary, in my opinion. I’ve had the Holy Spirit working through me for the past year. It’s been very interesting,” Artie said. 

On the night before the accident, he was doing some shopping when he suddenly felt that he needed to see an old friend. “I haven’t seen her in several years,” he said. “I dropped everything, walked out of the store, got in my truck, and drove to her house in the neighborhood.”

“My friend’s father was in the front yard, and I hadn’t seen him in a long time. So, I got out of the truck and waved him down,” Artie said they talked for two hours. “And then my friend, a young lady, came out of the house, and we spoke for another six hours in her front yard.”

“The accident must have happened at the moment I decided to leave their house. The whole time I was in the front yard just talking. And when I got there, I saw the car on fire and called the police. And that’s how it all happened," he said.

"On any other night, I would have been in bed, asleep.”