Page 41 - 01D_CL7_APR20.indd

Training in action:
Officer uses LEMAR skills to save victim
n BY DAN CAMPANA
A 15-year-old boy stabbed multiple times near a North Side Red Line stop one February night could have lost his life if not for Officer Israel Martinez and his bleeding control training.
The call of a stabbing victim went out in the early morn- ing hours of Feb. 24. Martinez was among the officers who re- sponded to find the teen at the North/Clybourn station with wounds to his ear, leg, arm and chest – and he immediately took action.
“Falling upon the (LEMAR) training...I applied a chest seal and conducted a sweep of the body to make sure nowhere else was bleeding,” Martinez said calmly as he recalled the inci- dent during a press conference at 18th District Headquarters in early March.
Martinez, who noted the stab wounds were predominantly to the chest, talked to the teen until paramedics arrived. The boy was taken to an area hospital in critical condition. Mar- tinez compared LEMAR to the tactical field care training he learned in the military that focuses on stopping bleeding until the injured person can receive next-level care.
Commander Jill Stevens praised Martinez for his efforts to save the teen, and in his overall work.
“Officer Martinez is hardworking and he is a dedicated of- ficer who engages positively in the community,” Stevens said. Martinez also earned some local notoriety beyond the press
conference as he appeared on WLS-AM for a brief interview with longtime Chicago radio personality Mancow.
“Good job, first of all,” Mancow told Martinez after the of- ficer recounted the incident and explained how a chest seal works.
CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ APRIL 2020 41