Published: May 08, 2008 09:38 pm            

Two ISU police officers honored for saving professor’s life

Ian Loomis, David Glick named Law Enforcement Officers of the Year

TERRE HAUTE — Ted Piechocinski felt dizzy one early January morning, then remembers nothing until he woke up on a hospital bed in an intensive-care unit with a tube from a respirator down his throat.

Because he couldn’t talk, a nurse at Union Hospital gave him a writing tablet and pen.

“My first question [writing to the nurse] was, ‘Am I neurologically intact?’ And I spelled it correctly, too, so that was a sign to them that this guy is going to be OK,” said Piechocinski, associate professor and director of Indiana State University’s music business program, recalling that Jan. 14 day when two men saved his life with a defibrillator, shortly after he had taught a class.

“Then I started passing notes back and forth. I had a group of students I was to take to California that Tuesday, so I was concerned about whether they had made the trip and whether everything turned out well and just how is everybody and had my mom been told. I still got those notes and will hang onto them,” he said.

“When I really grasped what was going on, it sort of freaked me out a little bit. How could this have happened? There were no warning signs, but the fact that Janet [his wife] was right there and between Ian Loomis and David Glick, it absolutely saved my life.”

Cpl. Loomis and Glick are officers for ISU Police.

On Thursday, the Terre Haute Breakfast Optimist Club awarded the two officers the annual W. Kevin Artz Memorial Law Enforcement Officer of the Year Award. It was the first time in the award’s 20-year history that the award was presented to ISU police, said Rich Dunkin, president of the club and a Terre Haute city councilman.

The award is presented in memory of Vigo County sheriff’s deputy Kevin Artz, who was killed in the line of duty in 1987 during a response to a domestic disturbance.

Janet Piechocinski, an associate professor of music at ISU, had called ISU Police for help. Loomis arrived within three minutes, carrying the automated external defibrillator, or AED. Glick arrived shortly afterward, seeing the professor’s skin color turn purple from not breathing.

The officers use of the AED allowed Piechocinski to regain a weak, sporadic pulse. That enabled paramedics with the Terre Haute Fire Department to transport him to Union Hospital where he underwent immediate surgery to repair a blocked artery.

“Ian was actually doing some chest compressions while I got the AED ready,” Glick said, recalling the incident. “I supported the wife, which was probably the best thing I could have done at the time. I have never seen anybody that hysterical,” said the 31-year veteran on ISU’s police force.

“It is an honor to receive this award,” Loomis said, a nearly three-year ISU police veteran. “It so happened that traffic seemed to be going the right way and we were able to get there quick and do some good.”

Loomis said each ISU patrol car carries an AED.

According to the American Heart Association, each minute of delay in delivering a defibrillation shock to a cardiac arrest victim reduces the chances of survival by 10 percent.

“Early CPR and defibrillation within the first three to five minutes after collapse, plus early advanced care, can result in high, greater than 50 percent, long-term survival rate,” said Angie Ramos with the Heart Association.

“There are really no reliable statistics about how many people receive assistance annually from AEDs, because no single agency collects that information,” Ramos said, adding police, firefighters and security guards nationwide all regularly use the devices.

Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com.

        

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