Officer Nathan Fiske Sr. was in his cruiser when he heard a call on the scanner about an unresponsive 78-year-old woman in a medical office at 112 Main St.
Officer Nathan Fiske Sr the Saviour
Life-saving measures were being taken, the dispatcher reported.
Officer Fiske’s cruiser just happened to be 900 feet away. “I knew I didn’t have a second to waste,” he said.
When he arrived, the patient was not responding to chest compressions.
Officer Fiske immediately began using the defibrillator, which registers a patient’s heart rhythm. In this case, the machine’s automated verbal commands instructed the officer to shock the woman’s heart to restore a rhythm.
Once that was done, the chest compressions continued until the Fire Department arrived and took over.
By then, the woman was breathing and responding to stimuli. When the Fire Department finished working on her, she was conscious and talking.
She was in stable condition at University of Massachusetts Medical Center — University Campus by that night.
