The officers who saved a life: "This is our duty"

On November 11th while performing precautionary measures in Rimkai the police representatives have witnessed a crash: a car ran into a signpost. The hurrying officers found the unconscious man behind the wheel – his partner was trying to perform CPR on him. Chest compressions were done to the driver persistently, until the medics arrived.

They did CPR continuously

The chest compressions were done by Nerijus Butkus. The 29-year old police officer had to resuscitate the man 5 or 6 times, because the moment his breathing was restored he would lose consciousness again.

The officer received help from his colleague Fajeta Rusinskyte. While the driver was resuscitated she called the ambulance and explained the cause of the crash in detail.

According to the officers everything happened unexpectedly, thus they needed to react with lightning speed. The man found on the site of the accident had already turned blue.

“We were performing precautionary measures: sobriety tests of drivers. A car drove by and crashed under the bridge. It took around 40 chest compressions for the man to start breathing again. As soon as he was conscious we turned him on his side. We had to perform CPR for around 6 minutes. The medics arrived in 10 minutes,” Butkus said.

The officers admit that in such a situation the help of your colleague is essential – only in this case is it possible to work promptly.

“It is necessary to work together, since while one person is providing help another is calling for help. It is also easier psychologically. The woman told us that the man had a heart attack; most likely he had a myocardial infarction,” said Rusinskyte.

Both officers assured that it was their first time they faced such a situation. Interestingly, both of them are not seasoned officers. F. Rusinskyte  has been working in the Police Force for a little over 3 years, while Butkus has worked in the Force for only two months.

Actually, the man has worked for the State Border Guard Service since 2009. He has been drawn to the profession since childhood. The woman, however, previously wanted to have a future in medicine, since she had finished kinesiotherapy courses.

“The profession attracted me. I decided to try it out. After passing all the standardized tests I began working. Otherwise, I would be working in the kinesiotherapy field now. I am yet to regret my decision,” said Rušinskytė.

Receiving gratitude for the prompt action

The heroes of the accident received gratitude from the family and their colleagues. However, they remained humble and called their heroic deed their duty. They were surprised to have appeared among the candidates for the “Klaipėda citizen of the year” award.

“When I came back my wife called me a star. But I’m no star, that’s just my job. Colleagues congratulated us and praised us for not making mistakes. We have to help people, especially in such a misfortunate event,” said Butkus commenting on his deed.

Rušinskytė, who also didn’t give prominence to her feat, agreed with her fellow officer. “Our colleagues believe that we, after this incident, have improved the police’s image in the public’s eye, since, as you know, we have been receiving a lot of criticism lately,” she said.

The partners affirmed that the occupation of a police officer requires a great physical and psychological preparation. The job requires strong nerves.

“Officers need to be strong in all aspects. We are well prepared, since we have high level training sessions. We feel the pressure from other people but do our best to ignore it and do our job,” Butkus assured.

According to Rusinskyte you are faced with different people on the job, so your head has to remain clear even in the most difficult situation.

What do the officers do in their free time? Butkus takes care of his 9-month year old son. At present he is focused on his job and his family. In his downtime he likes to play football.

Rusinskyte spends her free time doing sports and meeting up with her friends.

The officers wish the citizens of Klaipeda to cherish their health and drive safely. They pledge to continue protecting, defending and helping. 

“After the incident was over we remained really pleased with a taxi driver who helped take the man out of the car. That is a great example. We would like to wish the citizens of Klaipeda to be humane, so that they would not remain ignorant in a similar situation, would stop and help,” hopes Fajeta.