Brookfield Police Chief Aaron Kasiewicz, right, presents life-saving commendations to officer Nicholas Leonardo, left, and Sgt. Cody Dean.
Brookfield police respond to many emergency medical calls, although medical calls are not their primary duty. On Oct. 7, two policemen used their basic medical training to help save a man’s life.
The call came in of a man who was laying on the ground next to a vehicle in the parking lot of a business, said Police Chief Aaron Kasiewicz. Brookfield police and fire-EMS were dispatched and police Sgt. Cody Dean and officer Nicholas Leonardo got there first.
Dean and Leonardo performed CPR on the man, and shocked him with an AED to restore his heart rhythm. When medical personnel arrived, they took over the care of the man.
Some time later, a representative of the hospital called Kasiewicz.
“They wanted to let me know that he was the victim of a cardiac arrest and they wanted us to know that the officers’ quick response, immediate actions of effective CPR and use of the AED, along with the continued care that was provided by EMS, resulted directly in saving the male’s life,” Kasiewicz said.
The man received a pacemaker and was released from the hospital within two weeks of admission.
“It’s not always that we get good news on those type of things,” Kasiewicz said. “We do respond to a lot of medical calls and that’s not primarily our role. To hear that actions directly resulted in saving someone’s life is a good thing. I’m proud of you guys, thank you.”
Kasiewicz and the trustees presented commendations to Dean and Leonardo at the Dec. 2 trustees’ meeting.
Happy outcomes such as this “never leave you,” said Trustee Dan Suttles, a retired firefighter.
“You might go to a call like that and you might do all the things you did and to no avail – the person passes,” he said. “When they survive and you’re able to see them the next day or a week later, it’s a great feeling. It makes the job all worth it, I think.”
