The Dalton Police Department honored three of its officers on Tuesday with the agency’s Life Saving Award. The award was presented at the monthly meeting of the Dalton Public Safety Commission to Lt. Michael Houck and Officers Steven Johnson and Keith Black.
The award was presented to the officers based on their actions during a call on Dec. 12, 2022, at the Super 8 motel. The 911 center dispatched a call of a man on site who was not breathing and was unresponsive. Dalton officers were first to arrive and quickly took life-saving action.
“When they got there, they met with the man’s wife who had been trying to do CPR on him. They got her settled and they got him into a position to start doing CPR and they hooked up an AED (automated external defibrillator) to him and the AED shocked him and they continued CPR,” said Assistant Police Chief Chris Crossen. “When they first checked him, he had no pulse and he wasn’t breathing. By the time EMS or fire got there, they had gotten his pulse back and he was breathing.”
“When they later checked on him at Hamilton (Medical Center), he had stabilized,” Crossen continued.
“It takes a lot of courage to be able to pull that training up and use it at the appropriate time,” said Terry Mathis, one of the members of the Public Safety Commission. “We certainly appreciate all of (their) efforts and I know that man certainly appreciates it.”