Page 43 - February 2020 FOP Magazine

Officers in the 12th District continued to put their training to good use in recent events that called them to act quickly to save lives on the streets of Chicago.
These lifesaving efforts were first seen on Jan. 6, when two 12th District offi- cers provided aid to a gunshot wound using Law Enforcement Medical And Rescue Training (LEMART). The officers responded to the scene on West Jackson Boulevard that afternoon, where they discovered the victim of a gunshot wound to the thigh. Thanks to their LEMART training, the officers quickly applied a tourniquet to the 59-year-old male and a hemorrhage bandage to control bleed- ing before the EMS arrived to transport the victim to the hospital. The tourniquet used during this response was part of the Individual First Aid Kit that has proven to be a lifesaving tool on the job.
The Chicago Police Department re- cently began its annual 32-hour in-ser- vice training series, in which officers are trained in vital applications, includ- ing LEMART. This incident is just one of many that demonstrate how crucial it is for officers to be trained in the first-aid course that has already saved the lives of many officers and civilians.
The Department also recently recog- nized the heroic response of 12th Dis- trict Officers Adan Gonzalez and Rico
12th District Officers Adan Gonzalez and Rico Rodriguez share their use of training to save the life of a citizen who overdosed on heroin.
Rodriguez, who saved a man who had overdosed. Gonzalez and Rodriguez were working an evening shift on Jan. 24 when they were waved down by a citizen in the street. The officers then discovered a man who was unresponsive due to an apparent heroin overdose. Gonzalez and Rodriguez quickly administered CPR and Naloxone (Narcan) to resuscitate the vic- tim until the EMS arrived to transport him to the hospital for treatment.
The CPD recognizes these officers for their skilled use of training and selfless responses to save the lives of civilians on the job and ensure safety within the 12th District.
Chicago Police Department officers participate in LEMART training, which was used to save a gunshot victim in the 12th District this January.
12th District officers use vital training to save lives
Officers rescue man with ‘seconds’ to spare
n BY DAN CAMPANA
Rolling up to the scene of an SUV smashed into a barrier wall on Pulaski overlooking the Stevenson Expressway, Officers Gino Garcia and DeXavier Lang- ham realized they would need to help the man trapped inside during the early morning hours of Jan. 3.
They just didn’t know how quickly they would have to act as thick, black smoke poured out from the Jeep’s front end with an unresponsive driver behind the wheel.
“The driver didn’t say anything. We tried to get into the car, but the doors were locked,” Langham explained during
a press conference one day after the fiery incident.
Langham said Garcia found a metal bat or bar and used it to smash the ve- hicle’s back window to unlock the doors and give the officers a chance to extricate the man, who officials later said had suf- fered a medical emergency before the crash.
“I grabbed him [by] the shoulders; my partner then came over and helped me. [We] pulled him out of the car,” Lang- ham described. “After that, the vehicle [became] engulfed in flames.”
Added Garcia, “It was only a matter of seconds for the whole entire engine it-
self, the whole front hood of the car, to be in flames.”
Firefighters doused the fire and para- medics transported the man to the hos- pital, where he was initially listed in critical condition but was expected to survive, according to officials.
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