Page 51 - FOP August 2019 Magazine

a head-to-toe assessment of the apparent hit-and-run victim’s condition. “I saw the gentleman had a deformity to his leg and there was bright red blood.”
That triggered his LEMAR training from mid-June.
“I knew that bright red blood means an arterial bleed,” Sweeney explained to re- porters.
Without a tourniquet or belt of his own, Sweeney used a belt given to him by a by- stander. Sweeney applied it as tightly as he could to the man’s leg.
Responding officers from the 12th Dis- trict arrived at the scene. Sweeney then applied a tourniquet that one of his col- leagues had with him.
During the wait for medics, Sweeney kept talking to the alert and oriented man to reassure him that he would be fine.
“I was trying to keep him engaged in conversation. He was worried about his cellphone,” Sweeney said.
The man was taken to the hospital for further treatment.
Sweeney received praise for his quick thinking during an unexpected event.
“One of the officers said that [applying the belt] was a lifesaving maneuver,” he shared with reporters.
Deputy Chief Kevin Johnson, who heads the CPD training division, de- scribed Sweeney’s work as a “great, great effort.”
“There’s more to this job than enforcing the law. It’s about saving lives and helping people at any time, day or night,” Johnson said.
LEMAR has been around for several years, with the goal of teaching officers basic lifesaving skills they can use to help themselves, their partners and anyone they encounter who is suffering signif- icant blood loss from a wound or severe injury.
The availability of these medical kits containing tourniquets and gauze for packing wounds, has been limited.
The Chicago Police Foundation (CPF) championed the effort to reach an initial goal of delivering 2,000 kits to trained of- ficers.
“We are certainly pleased and hon- ored...to provide a kit that makes a dif- ference across the city,” CPF Executive Director John Robak said.
CPD officials announced the expected arrival this month of 6,500 kits for distri- bution to officers who have participated in LEMAR.
“It was just an incidence of being at the right place at the right time.”
-Officer Timothy Sweeney
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By 2021, every officer will have com- pleted the training and be armed with a kit to help expand his or her ability to buy precious time before paramedics arrive.
Sweeney and a pair of 12th District of- ficers received a challenge coin and card given by LEMAR trainers to any officer who uses the kit to help someone. He also earned praise from his grandmother, who heard the story when the pie was finally delivered.
“She was happy for me,” Sweeney said. “It was just an incidence of being at the right place at the right time.”
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