Officer who saves two lives in a week says 'he was just doing his job’

August 16, 2019

Two Ottawa residents are alive because of an east division front line officer, but he claims it’s all in a day, or in his case, night’s work.

On August 4, he was called to the highway 174 overpass near Champlain Street a little after midnight when a sharp-eyed OC Transpo bus driver spotted a distraught woman climb over the guard rail and move towards the live lanes below.

The officer, who has 21 years of military experience and three years of policing said, “I could tell from her body language she was committed to jumping. There was no time to talk her back to the other side of the barrier. I’d lose her.”

Running from his car, he grabbed her from the other side of the rail and held on.

He couldn’t pull her over the guard rail himself because of the risk she’d jump when he moved. Instead, he waited for his partner to arrive and together they pulled her to safety.

On August 9, the same officer was the first emergency responder to a 911 medical call at about 3:40 am. He found a man at the corner of Jeanne D’Arc Bv and Des Epinettes Ave who couldn’t speak, had bulging eyes, difficulty breathing and was hitting his chest. The officer performed the Heimlich maneuver and dislodged something stuck in the man’s throat.

Paramedics arrived and continued medical aid.

The man wanted the officer to accompany him to the hospital after having saved his life.

“I promised him he was in better hands with the paramedics,” said the officer.

The man made a full recovery.

This is the same officer who shoveled an elderly man’s driveway this past winter, after he had become snowbound in his home and unable to leave for weeks.

The officer wishes to remain anonymous, as this is just part of being an officer.