Hero cops save sergeant left close to death
A POLICE officer was just minutes from death after a freak accident out on a job.
PC Lee Jackson from Consett was left with a bleeding artery after impaling his arm on a van’s broken aerial which had crashed into a ditch.
Realising the seriousness of the situation, he put out a radio call for immediate help and staggered back to his car.
The 45-year-old father-oftwo said: “The aerial had gone in at the top of my forearm and down to the bottom of my wrist.
“My first thoughts were initially to stay there and call for the fire service and ambulance, who I thought would come out, cut me off the aerial and I would go to hospital.
“But as I was going through that thought process my arm started to bleed and it shot out over my head and the top of the van. I recognised that as an arterial bleed as I have seen them before and I knew that changed the timeframe involved.
“Rather than wait to collapse or fall down, I had to pull myself off the aerial and, as I did so, that’s when I realised how far down it had gone.”
He added: “As I sat there, the bleed wasn’t stopping and I thought about my children. I knew I had to get help.”
The cop then staggered to a nearby farmhouse, home of Freda Scott who offered to help.
“She offered me a tea towel and invited me inside but I said no because I thought it’s not nice to have a stranger die in your house,” PC Jackson said.
Before long, colleagues PC Alan Freeman and PC Philip Nixon were on the scene, soon joined by PC Carl Symes and Sergeant Philip Carter.
“We wanted to keep him calm because we knew he would know the seriousness of the situation,” said PC Freeman.
While this was happening, Acting Chief Inspector David Stewart, back at Consett Police Station, had requested an armed response unit attend, knowing they would have the necessary equipment to deal with such a wound.
PC Mark Cudden and PC David M o r g a n , who were at Spennymoor, were mobilised and en route prepared a tourniquet, bandages and oxygen.
“Lee was obviously in a state of shock due to the blood loss,” said PC Cudden. “Dave applied the tourniquet and I put the pressure bandages on and administered oxygen.”
With the bleeding stemmed, the decision was made to take PC Jackson in the marked armed response car to the University Hospital of North Durham where a team of specialists were waiting. “The con
sultant PC Lee Jackson (front) with (from, left to right) Acting Chief Insp David Stewart, PC Carl Symes, Sgt Philip Carter, PC Mark Cudden, PC Philip Nixon, PC Alan Freeman later told me I was just one minute away from losing my arm and three minutes from death,” said PC Jackson. “All of the decisions which were made by everyone who came to my aid slowed down the bleeding and meant that I recovered fully and I am alive today. I think they are all abso- lutely amazing.” The heroic police officers will be presented with awards from the Royal Humane Society as thanks for their efforts.