Kill Devil Hills Police helped save a heart attack victim on April 27th using an Automated External Defibrillator (AED).
KDH Police officers Joshua Liverman, a rookie in his first law enforcement job, and Christopher Rusk, a 13-year law enforcement veteran who has been with the KDH Police since 2010, were patrolling in town that Sunday when they heard Dare Central dispatching medics to the Kangaroo gas station at Colington Road and US-158.
Dispatch said a 54-year-old patient was having a stroke or seizure and was neither conscious nor breathing.
The officers responded to the scene within two minutes of the call and began assessing the victim.
Officer Liverman began performing CPR while Officer Rusk retrieved the AED from his vehicle.
Officer Rusk applied the AED while Officer Liverman continued CPR. The AED delivered one shock and the patient regained a pulse and began to breathe on his own.
EMS arrived on scene and the officers continued to assist the patient until he was transported to Outer Banks Hospital for further treatment.
As of April 30th, the victim was still in recovery but was up and walking and talking.
This incident comes 11 months after KDH Police Captain Mark Evans helped save heart attack victim Dewey Parr using an AED. At the time, Evans was the only officer on the force with an AED in his vehicle.
Since then, SAGA Construction helped raise money to purchase enough AED units so that each KDH officer could carry one in their vehicles.
That program has since expanded to all the law enforcement agencies on the Outer Banks.
