By WMBD-TV
NORMAL – Normal police officer Jeremy Flood received a round of applause for performing lifesaving measures while off-duty.
Flood is a school resource officer and president of the Illinois School Resource Officers Association. As much as he enjoys working with students some of his rewarding moments come from helping adults in the community live to see another day.
“It shows the Normal Police Department’s dedication to training. I think they go above and beyond into training their officers,” said Flood.
Flood has spent the entirety of his 20-year career with the Normal Police Department.
As the community changes with the times, the department keeps officers up to speed with various trainings. The CPR and AED training has helped Flood perform lifesaving measures on community members. NPD recently recognized Flood on Facebook for a situation that happened when he was working out at a gym in May.
“It was just my usual workout when I saw a commotion. There was a group of other gym goers that surrounded a man who was down on the ground,” said Flood. “I found out that he didn’t have a pulse, he wasn’t breathing and had fallen off the exercise bike he was on.”
Flood immediately gave the man chest compression while someone else retrieved an AED.
“As you look at it, if the AED you’re standing in front of is not on the app you can hit plus sign and add it,” she said.
Wilson wants people to know if they’re performing CPR on someone before EMS arrives to keep going until told otherwise.
“We’re going to assess the scene and make sure it’s safe and then we’ll take over when it’s safe to do so,” Wilson said.
According to the CDC more than 356,000 people have an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in the US every year. Normal PD officers have AEDs in their squad cars but Flood said it’s important for businesses to make sure they have working and accessible AEDs in their establishments.
“I think every business should spend the money and get an AED in their building because it’s worth it to save a life,” Flood said.
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