Officers' quick action saves life of inmate
The quick work of four corrections officers at the Butler County Prison saved the life of an inmate who went into cardiac arrest on the night before Thanksgiving.
Capt. Dave Winters, Sgt. Tyler Tracey, Officer Todd Walker and Officer Matt Edgar performed CPR and used an automated external defibrillator — AED — to revive the inmate shortly after 6 p.m. on Nov. 25.
The male inmate, who prison officials would not identify, had just come to the prison on Nov. 23 and was being housed in the classification pod.
Winters said the inmate had called for staff members a few times during the day. He called for Winters about 6 p.m. When Winters opened up the food pass window on the cell door, the inmate got down on his knees and asked to make a phone call.
“From there, he actually went unconscious and fell to the floor,” Winters said.
Officers called for a code blue — the code designating a medical emergency. Officers opened the cell, removed the inmate's cellmate and waited for the prison's medical staff.
Two prison nurses, Sheila Stovar and Ashli Hollobaugh, arrived soon and began to check the inmate's vital signs. At the time, he was still unconscious, but had a pulse and was breathing.
Shortly after that, Winters and Tracey noticed that the inmate had stopped breathing. Then, Hollobaugh noticed something else serious.
“She was unable to find a pulse,” Walker said.
From there, the officers began to do CPR. Winters, Tracey and Walker traded-off on doing compressions while Edgar did the breathing.
During the CPR, officers used an AED device three times.
“There was a noticeable improvement after the third shock,” Tracey said.
The CPR went on for 15 minutes until firefighters from the Butler Fire Department arrived. About that time, staff members were able to find a pulse.
The inmate, who is in his early 30s, was taken to Butler Memorial Hospital by Butler Ambulance Service.
Warden Joe DeMore said situations like this are rare, and praised the staff members for using their training and jumping into action right away.
“It just reflects on how professional (the staff and training are),” DeMore said.
Edgar said code blue calls happen all the time at the prison, but they rarely are this serious. In his 6-plus years at the prison, Edgar said this was the first time he had seen such an incident.
Walker said he was surprised by how well the four worked together in the situation, considering how out-of-the-ordinary the event was.
Winters said this was the first time the four officers had to do CPR, and agreed they handled the situation correctly. “In a high stress situation, the teamwork ... was pretty amazing,” Winters said.
