Trevor L. Barnett, GPC Online Student

During my first year as a police officer I had an experience that I will never forget. The experience haunts me whenever I hear the dreadful "person down" call over my police radio. It even races through my mind when I visit certain places. This experience was a shock to my consciousness, for I had never experienced such an event.

One sunny Wednesday afternoon in May, I received a call from Henry County dispatch to respond to a house in the Pates Lake subdivision, where a female was unconscious and not breathing. The dispatcher further advised me that a male subject at the house had begun CPR and the female was not responding. Upon my arrival to the house, I made contact with a white male and a middle-aged white female who was lying on the floor in the dining room. The female was dressed in a tattered nightgown covered in copious amounts of green bodily fluids. Her skin was a dusky shade of gray and her lips were ever so blue. Upon observing the female lying on the floor motionless, I immediately assessed her condition and then connected an automated external defibrillator to her chest and began CPR. While administering CPR a foul, rancid smell of death was ever present in the room. After administering CPR and shocking the female several times for what seemed like an eternity, the paramedics finally arrived to pronounce the woman dead.

What I experienced that afternoon would haunt me for years to come. On a daily basis while listening to my police radio, I hear calls of people unconscious and not breathing. Every time I hear this dreadful call, I think of that poor, unfortunate lady lying on the floor cold and lifeless. Whenever I receive a call of a person unconscious, I have an overwhelming feeling. My mind travels back in time and replays the incident on that dreadful night at the house in the Pates Lake Subdivision. For a short while after this experience, I became so overwhelmed with fright when I received a similar call, that I had to pull to the side of the road take a deep breath and gather my thoughts before proceeding.

I continually remember this experience when I enter a hospital or when I enter a house that is similar to the house where this horrible experience took place. The rancid smells that are often present in a hospital bring back memories of that fateful day. I even recall the experience when I enter a house with vaulted ceilings in the dinning room. The dining room where the incident occurred had very tall vaulted ceilings with cobwebs draping the chandelier.

That awful experience I had in May will haunt me forever. Regardless of where I am or what I am doing, I will remember that lifeless body lying on the floor. Although this was a terrifying experience, it gives me comfort to know that I dealt with the situation in a professional manner. Hopefully if I am faced with this situation again, I will react in the same way, however, with a better outcome.