Lifesaving Rescue, Birth Assistance a Day’s Work for Cop - East Idaho News

Lifesaving Rescue, Birth Assistance a Day’s Work for Cop

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GETTY 041414 PoliceLights?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1397530115947iStock/Thinkstock(BURLINGTON, Mass.) — Saving a man’s life and helping a woman give birth within 24 hours count as a “great learning experience,” a Massachusetts cop said Monday.

“It’s one of those situations where if it does happen again, this experience will carry you in touchy situations,” Burlington Police Officer Ryan Griffin told ABC News.

Griffin was just about to finish his overnight shift Thursday morning when a call came at about 7:45, he said. The caller, from the Oracle building, said a man in his 40s was unconscious and not breathing.

When Griffin got to the building, he saw the man lying down on the floor in the hallway of an office.

“I checked for his pulse, but I couldn’t find any,” he said. “The color of his face was changing a lot; it was bluish, an obvious sign that they’re in distress. When your adrenaline is going, you can’t think straight so you revert back to what you know, CPR.”

Griffin performed a series of chest compressions and, shortly after, emergency services showed up to take the unconscious man in for treatment. He had experienced cardiac arrest but is expected to make a full recovery, Griffin said.

Barely 24 hours later, but not before the end of his next day’s shift, Griffin received another 911 call, although this time working from the dispatcher’s chair. A woman called saying that her daughter in the backseat of the car was in labor, about to give birth. The two were traveling northbound on the highway to Winchester Hospital.

“When I got the call, I didn’t think she was going to make it to the hospital on time,” Griffin told ABC News. “I wanted to have the police, fire department and ER staff ready, so I redirected them to a closer hospital that was two minutes away.”

Both the mother and child are doing just fine.

“I just did the best I could,” Griffin said, “and it was a huge relief to know that they’re doing well.”

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