Cop, aide save woman by performing CPR
Staff reporter
It was just another call for the veteran police officer but when he arrived on the scene it was not a typical call.
Marion Police Officer Howard Kahler, 59, responded at 4:15 p.m. June 13 with a local EMS crew to a call of an unresponsive woman.
When he arrived, home health care provider Ray Andrews informed the officer that the woman wasn't breathing.
"I felt for a pulse in her neck and wrist and didn't find a pulse," he said. "I started chest compressions while the home health care worker did breaths (in the patient's mouth)."
It was only a few minutes, Kahler said, until the ambulance arrived and the woman began to breathe on her own.
"She was still totally unresponsive," Kahler said. The woman was transported to St. Luke Hospital. She was released the next day.
"I've talked to her since and she's doing just fine. They're not sure what caused the episode," said Kahler.
Kahler has been a police officer for 28 years and with the local department for two years. He's had CPR training but hasn't had any recent refresher courses.
"Instincts kick in," he said. "You always fall back on your training."
No stranger to this type of situation, Kahler performed CPR two times before as a police officer in Iola.
"A woman had a massive heart attack and survived," Kahler said, but a man who received CPR did not.
Not one for the attention, Kahler sees it as part of a day's work.
"I was closer than the ambulance and didn't do anything any other police officer wouldn't do," he said.
