By SUE SUCHYTA
Sunday Times Newspapers
RIVERVIEW – An alert police officer helped save the life of a 78-year-old Grosse Ile Township man Nov. 18 when he was found in his vehicle, slumped over the steering wheel.
Police Officer Jason Fell was on routine patrol that morning on Jefferson Avenue, near Pennsylvania Road, when he saw a Lincoln sport utility vehicle on the shoulder without emergency hazard lights on.
Fell activated the emergency lights on his patrol vehicle, then approached the driver’s side window, where he found an older man slumped over, breathing, but turning blue. He knocked on the window repeatedly, but the man was unresponsive.
Fell radioed for Police and Fire department support, then broke the passenger side window and unlocked the driver’s side door.
Police Sgt. Tom McClendon arrived on the scene, and help fell remove the man from the vehicle and get him on the ground. Fell opened the man’s airway, and found he was still breathing but otherwise unresponsive.
A nurse who was driving by pulled over, and assisted the police officers until Riverview Fire Department personnel arrived, who then transported the man to Henry Ford Hospital in Wyandotte.