Bend, COCC officers receive ‘Lifesaver Award’
COCC Campus Public Safety Officer Kevin Lanier and Bend police Corporal Troy Wiles on Monday received the Bend Fire Department’s “Lifesaver Award” for their part in the successful resuscitation of Bend resident Terry Howard after he crashed his van into a northwest Bend homel.
On April 21 st , Howard was driving his vehicle in the area of Regency Street and Mount Washington Drive when he went into cardiac arrest and drove his vehicle into a house, said Steve O’Malley, Bend Fire’s deputy chief of EMS operations.
After requesting EMS, Lanier and Wiles pulled Howard from the vehicle and immediately began CPR.
In the seven minutes it took for a Bend Fire Department medic unit to arrive, the two were also able to deliver two shocks with an automated emergency defibrillator (AED) Lanier was carrying in his car, O’Malley said
According to O’Malley, “stories like these are becoming more and more common here in Bend.”
“The science behind the treatment of cardiac arrest now focuses heavily on ‘high-performance CPR’,” he explained.
If a cardiac arrest victim is given early CPR the chances of the patient responding to our advanced treatment is much more likely.
Bend Fire Department crews now engage in what has been deemed “pit crew” cardiac arrest management. The crews utilize a metronome to assure an adequate CPR rate is maintained, and they rotate personnel every two minutes to ensure peak performance.
Also, throughout the treatment, CPR pauses for any reason are limited to a maximum of 10 seconds.
“This is why we are having this type of unprecedented cardiac arrest recovery, where the patient walks out of the hospital neurologically intact,” O’Malley said after Monday’s award presentation, attended by Howard and his wife.
“We want to build on our successes,” O’Malley said in a news release. “We understand we can’t do this alone. With the help of community members and our partners in law enforcement, we can make Bend a safer place to live.
O’Malley noted that it was just one of “three full recoveries from cardiac arrest in a 10-day period.”
“Remember, it is easier than ever to help — you can now perform hands-only CPR,” he said.
