On Jan. 27, at approximately 6 a.m., seven Augusta University Police officers responded to a welfare check regarding a man who was believed to be sleeping on the back stairwell attached to the Harper St. parking deck next to the Children’s Hospital of Georgia.
After arriving on the scene and failing to wake the man with verbal call outs as a result of him being completely unresponsive, Officer Eugene Maes sprung into action and began to perform life-saving efforts. Noticing a foaming at the man’s mouth, Maes applied a dose of Narcan on the man while alerting AUPD Dispatch and seeking on-scene aid.
Since the man did not have a pulse and was not breathing, Maes then began CPR as he awaited the arrival of Officer Rodriquez Washington, who delivered another dose of Narcan for the man upon Maes’ request.
“When I looked at the bodycam video, I was really impressed with how our officers responded to this welfare check,” said AUPD’s Captain of Professional Standards Eric “Harry” Smith. “Once Officer Maes realized he was dealing with a medical emergency like this, he immediately went into action, and then as I saw this call play out to its completion I really was impressed with the way the entire shift of officers, including our dispatchers, worked as a seamless team in order to save this man’s life.”
Needing an automated external defibrillator (AED), Washington sought out an AED in the nearby Children’s Hospital to bring back to Maes. Sergeant Justin Stowers also appeared on the scene and coordinated radio traffic to inform dispatch of the administered Narcan and the need for additional EMS support.
Officer Rebecca Saunders then made it onto the scene with a medical kit and began to monitor the victim’s vital signs while dispatch informed officers they had paged out the Rapid Response Team from the hospital to assist.
After a third dose of Narcan and many minutes of CPR, the victim began to regain consciousness and sustained a pulse as well as respirations. Saunders and Stowers then moved the man into a recovery position.
About 15 minutes into the rescue efforts, the hospital’s Rapid Response Team and members of the Augusta Fire Department arrived to take over care of the victim. Two and a half hours later, Stowers visited the victim in the ER and found him awake, responsive and “generally feeling better.” According to Stowers, as reported in Smith’s nomination, the man had admitted to “snorting fentanyl which led to his overdose.”
“When Officer Maes discovered the victim in the stairwell, the victim was for all intents and purposes dead. Officer Maes took quick and decisive action to assess and treat the victim. Sgt. Stowers, Officer Washington and Officer Saunders made themselves ready to assist Officer Maes and each in their own way contributed to saving the victim’s life,” SMith wrote in his award nomination. “I saw diligence combined with compassion in the work of each officer during this call … it is not hyperbolic to say the total sum of this team effort was quite literally bringing the victim back to life.”
In addition to the collective team effort, AUPD Chief James Lyon, who was on vacation during the incident, said he was extremely proud that his officers demonstrated several of their department’s most important philosophies.
“We talk about a philosophy of continuous improvement and focusing on our core values, excellence and respect being two of those, and our officers showed that during the process – treating everyone with dignity and respect,” he said. “Unfortunately, we have a lot of these sorts of calls where we have a homeless person and a welfare check, and our officers do a really good job of catering to the needs of the homeless population, the less fortunate population, and giving them the things they may need out there on the streets such as hygiene products and coats.”
However, in this one instance, Lyon said it was not material items the victim needed – it was something much more invaluable, which he and Smith felt deserved a special recognition.
“I’m certainly honored to provide Lifesaving awards to them, and they also received ribbons that they will wear daily on their chests on their uniform to be able to show everybody they were recognized,” said Lyon.
In a private ceremony, officers Maes, Washington, Saunders and Sgt. Stowers were presented with the Lifesaving award, as well as three Communications Service Officers Rijunite McElheney, Jean Jenkins and Jayme Angel.
“Everyday officers are out there doing the right thing, at the right time, for the right reasons and providing exemplary, sometimes lifesaving, service,” said Smith. “In our profession, we should celebrate those times and that good work that our people are doing … in this day and age we have an increased focus on accountability, appropriately so, but we should also have an increased focus on the good work that our police officers do in our community – I think it’s important for our community to know.”
Lyon agreed and said most of the time his officers do the right thing, and the few times that standards are not upheld are met with diligent action. However, at the same time, he and Smith believe “extraordinary” efforts need to be taken and emphasized just as much as the bad.
“When I see our officers out there showing compassion, respect, dignity and fighting for human life, regardless of whose life that is, I think that’s something worthy of the community to celebrate.”
