Two West Shore RCMP officers are being praised for a quick response that might have saved the life of a driver who went into medical distress Monday.
About 10: 45 a.m., a Langford resident saw a man slumped over the wheel as his Dodge pickup truck sped through the stop sign on Bellamy Road and Phelps Avenue.
The car ended up in the ditch and the witness called 911, describing in detail what he thought was a medical emergency. Const. Carmen Hill and Cpl. Raj Sandhu, on the scene within minutes, discovered that the driver was not breathing and had no pulse.
They pulled the driver out of the car and performed CPR for about seven minutes, said West Shore RCMP spokesman Sgt. Max Fossum.
A Langford firefighter also arrived to help revive the man. Once B.C. Ambulance paramedics arrived, they used a defibrillator to get the man's pulse back. He was taken to Royal Jubilee Hospital, where he was unconscious but expected to survive.
Fossum said the information from the witness was key in prompting a fast response.
"We don't go 'code three' to all [motor-vehicle incidents]," Fossum said. "That was crucial for us because the person saw and was able to describe that a medical incident occurred."
