A Calgary firefighter and an off-duty Sooke RCMP officer are being credited with saving a woman’s life this past weekend.
Sheldon Burton and girlfriend Kimberley Dueck were in the Sooke area to dog sit.
While out for a walk around noon on Saturday, they came across a male in a wheel chair, who appeared to be in distress.
They approached him and and quickly realized that the man’s caregiver had collapsed on the side of the road at Aiken and West Coast.
The male was unable to assist nor provide any information about how long the woman had been laying there.
While Kim stayed behind with her two four legged friends to comfort the man, Sheldon rushed to help the unconscious woman.
She was unresponsive and appeared to be in full cardiac arrest.
As Sheldon started performing CPR, Kim called 911.
At that moment, Cpl. Joe Holmes of the Sooke RCMP, off-duty at the time, saw what was happening and stopped to help.
Cpl. Holmes continued CPR, while Sheldon reassessed the female, she remained unresponsive with no pulse.
Sooke Volunteer Fire Department soon arrived with an Automated External Defibrillator and were able to successfully resuscitate the woman.
“Firefighters and police officers receive training in CPR and first aid, but in this case both were off duty, and may not have expected to have to put those skills to use, ” said Sooke Detachment Commander S/Sgt. Jeff McArthur.
“It shows how very important it is for everyone to have these skills. I believe that were it not for Burton’s quick thinking, this may been a very different outcome. I would like to personally commend all those involved for their action.”
The woman was transported to a local hospital for further assessment and is expected to make a full recovery.
