Streetsboro paramedics, police officers honored for efforts that saved woman's life
Police officers and paramedics may have different jobs, but they sometimes come together as a team and such a team is credited with saving the life of a woman at a Streetsboro home in early October.
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Life saving awards were presented to Streetsboro police officers Josh Bartholomew and Matt Plesz and Fire Capt. Jeff Miller and Lts. Brad Ryczek, Mark Chapple and Eric Moss at City Council’s Oct. 25 meeting. The awards are given by the respective departments. Police Lt. Rich Polivka, who presented the awards to the two officers, said Bartholomew has received the award three times before and Plesz once.
“We're very proud of our officers and couldn't be more pleased with the outcome of this situation,” said Polivka. “The general public may not know it, but our officers often respond to medical emergencies such as this one. Since they are already out on patrol in the community, they can respond quickly.”
A call came in at about 2 p.m. Oct. 4 that a woman in her early 40s had passed out and was barely breathing. Plesz arrived within a minute and Bartholomew in less than two minutes of being dispatched.
The officers used an automated external defibrillator to give the woman a shock.
“All of our officers carry AEDs and are trained in CPR, so they can begin lifesaving efforts until the fire department arrives,” Polivka said.
They also gave her Narcan, but Polivka said it was only as a precaution.
“There was no evidence of drug use,” he said.
Once the paramedics arrived, they took over. Miller said he did not want to go into too many specifics about the call because of medical confidentiality laws, but said the woman had gone into full cardiac arrest.
“In a situation like this where there’s a full arrest, a cardiac arrest, we would continue life-saving with CPR, cardiac monitoring,” he said.
Miller said paramedics also use a Lucas chest compression device, a machine that is placed over the patient’s chest and can do compressions that are more consistent and efficient than any human being can do, doesn’t get tired and frees up the paramedics to perform other life-saving measures.
“If on the chance we get a heartbeat back or the patient regains consciousness or is breathing again, we would do supportive measures to help any underlying conditions which could be anything from heart conditions or stroke or any condition you could think of,” he said. “We would treat anything we could to give them a better chance at survival.”
The woman was taken to University Hospitals Medical Center. She did survive and subsequently went home, Miller said.
“The best outcome we could have,” he said.
Reporter Jeff Saunders can be reached at jsaunders@recordpub.com.
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Streetsboro EMS and police honored for efforts that saved woman's life
