Being prepared can mean the difference between life and death.
We often assume that emergency first aid procedures like the Heimlich maneuver, CPR, or applying a splint can only be done by professionals.
While they employ these maneuvers much more effectively, these basic maneuvers should be known to the layperson as well.
These things can save a life whether you’re out in the woods, on vacation, or god forbid, middle of an active crime scene.
17-year-old Ava Donegan was out with her boyfriend earlier this month.
The couple was in Excelsior springs and was on their way to go thrift shopping.
None of them expected that their day would turn dangerous.
The couple stopped at an intersection where a truck right behind them was being questioned by the police.
Then, without any warning, disaster erupted.
The driver shot one of the apprehending police officers.
The officers were trying to pull him over on a warrant for assaulting a law enforcement agent.
The driver, in retaliation, opened fire.
“I saw the cop get out of the car and then I saw him get shot a few times,” Donegan recalled to KMBC.
“After that, we both ducked, and he started calling the police.”
One of the police officers fired back.
The driver was shot in the head, ending the moment that might have felt like hours for the couple. The incident was far from over, though.
When Ava recovered, she saw that one of the police officers was in danger.
He was the first officer who the driver shot in the shoulder and wrist.
“Somehow, I blinked my eye and the cop who was shot was right in front of my car.”
“He was asking me to get out and help put his tourniquet on,” she said to the news outlet.
At that moment, the policeman was saying that his extremities were starting to feel numb.
Donegan quickly sprang into action.
She assisted the officer in putting his vest off and wrapping his tourniquet around his arm.
She said that she learned how to do it because of her dad who’s an ICU nurse.
“It was instantly like a lightbulb. I remember sitting on the couch multiple times and he goes over a tourniquet and how important it is,” Donegan told KMBC in another interview.
Her father, Devin Donegan, was proud of his daughter.
“I still think that she’s very impressive,” said Devin Donegan, of University Health Clinical Care.
The institution where her father works has trained nearly 1,500 first responders on how to properly use a tourniquet.
And it was a habit and lesson that Devin passed on to his children.
He said that he always carries one in his car at all times.
This only goes to show the importance of knowing how to employ an emergency maneuver because you’ll never know when you’ll need it.
“I’m just glad that he is okay. I think that gives me a good peace of mind,” Ava Donegan said.
The officer is expected to recover after his second surgery.
Watch how this teen became a policeman’s hero when she helped him with his tourniquet.
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