Last modified: Friday, May 1, 2009
Two IUPD officers honored for life-saving actions
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 1, 2009
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Two Indiana University Police Officers, Sgt. Shannon Ramey and Officer Joe Amandola, have been recognized by the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association for their efforts in providing assistance to an IU employee having a cardiac episode on Easter morning.
Each officer was given a Certificate of Heroism and a commendation bar to wear on his uniform.
The two officers had gone to the Forest Quad kitchen on Easter morning, April 12, in response to a call at 3:33 a.m. that an IU employee was on the ground and possibly not breathing.
There, Sgt. Ramey found a food services employee lying on the floor, and he initiated cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Officer Joe Amandola arrived with an automatic external defibrillator, which the two officers used. The subject regained a normal heart rhythm. Bloomington Hospital paramedics relieved the officers and transported the subject to Bloomington Hospital.
A Letter of Commendation from the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association accompanied the award to Ramey and Amandola. It read, in part -- "We read recent news accounts about your role in the recovery of an Indiana University RPS food services worker from a sudden cardiac arrest. On behalf of the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association, we want to say, 'thank you' and have enclosed a public safety award."
The Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association works to prevent sudden cardiac arrest through awareness, improved community emergency response and better education, screening and access to treatment for patients.
