CHAMBLEE, Ga. — All four officers who helped save a man’s life received a special recognition from the Chamblee Police Department. Body camera video showed the officers responding to the cardiac arrest.
“While processing and determining what was going on, I lost a pulse,” said Chamblee Police Officer Dustin Bulcher.
It was a matter of life or death.
Bulcher said he got a medical emergency call and found a man, later identified as Pablo Santiago, in full cardiac arrest at a Chamblee Jiffy Lube.
“My goal was to make sure he was going to make it. That was my end goal. So it was never in my mind that he wasn’t going to make it. He was going to make it that day,” Bulcher told Channel 2’s Audrey Washington.
He said he immediately started CPR and hooked Santiago to an automated external defibrillator.
“It gave a shock to Mr. Santiago and advised that we needed to proceed with CPR,” Bulcher explained.
In police body camera video, three other officers are seen rushing in to help with CPR.
“Got there immediately started doing compressions and swapping out,” said officer Elvin Kerr.
“By that time, we were just his back up and support,” officer Brandi Boddy told Washington.
Police officers worked on Santiago for nearly 20 minutes, then finally, they got a pulse.
“He’s breathing, thank God,” Bulcher is heard saying in the video.
Santiago fully recovered at the hospital.
Monday afternoon, he spoke with Washington and had a message for the officers who saved his life.
“Well, I would like thank them very much. They went out of their way to assist me and I’ll eternally appreciate it,” Pablo Santiago said.
“He’s with his family. He’s doing great, actually,” Bulcher said.
“He’s up and about, and I’m happy we were able to give him another day on this earth,” Chamblee police officer Roderick Santiago added.
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