SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — UC Santa Cruz says four campus police officers and three dispatchers have been recognized for lifesaving actions after two emergency calls where quick response helped save lives.
UC Santa Cruz News reported that the recognition happened during a May 11 ceremony hosted by the UC Santa Cruz Police Department.
The university said the awards honored responses to two separate calls, one in March and one in April, where dispatchers, officers and partner responders moved quickly during life-threatening emergencies.
Dispatchers and officers recognized
According to the university, the March 12 response began when dispatchers J. Lindblad and Cheryl Seldon received a crash call. Sgt. W. Clayton and Officer A. Heebner responded, found a student unconscious, not breathing and without a pulse, and began CPR.
UC Santa Cruz reported that the student regained a pulse and survived after continued emergency care.
The university also described an April 21 crisis call handled by dispatcher H. Faulk. Officer S. Mercado, trainee Officer J. Venzon and Sgt. J. Watson responded, located the person in need and administered lifesaving measures until firefighters and paramedics arrived.
A reminder of the chain of survival
The recognition highlights a part of public safety that can be easy to miss from the outside: dispatchers getting the right information fast, officers finding the person in crisis, and medical help continuing the care until the scene is stable.
For ThinBlueNews readers, the UC Santa Cruz case is a reminder that lifesaving work is not always loud or visible. Sometimes it starts with a call-taker, a radio, a location, CPR and the people who keep moving until help arrives.
Sources and attribution
- UC Santa Cruz News provided the reported facts, names, ceremony date, incident dates and source photograph.
- The featured image uses the UC Santa Cruz News source photo with a ThinBlueNews editorial news-card overlay.
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