This morning, August 2nd, I was doing my normal routine with my friend Randy Breaden as we enjoyed a round of Golf at Turtle Creek. We always have fun, and we both played pretty well this morning. It was a great morning to play, cool, greens were excellent, fairways were wet, but playable, and all in all, a great morning. Randy has his own cart, but this morning it ran out of juice on the 14th hole. Of course, I did what all friends do…..I laughed and told him that for a price, I would take him home. (By the way, thanks to Shannon and Riley Berry for dragging his cart to his house for him.) Anyway, on my way back from his house, I stopped in to thank them, and Shannon, as he passed me, he said a gentleman had a heart attack on No. 2 tee. On my way home, I stopped down by 2, and witnessed the tragedy unfold (It couldn’t have been a minute since he told me!) and a hero doing his job…..
As I stood there, I noticed 3 Darke County Sheriff’s already around the man. One of them, Officer Jamie Joseph, working feverishly,doing chest pumps on the fallen golfer. How they all got there so fast was a miracle, and as Officer Joseph worked on the man, and the others watched and assisted, I noticed a determination in Officer Joseph’s face…..He was going to succeed or give everything he had to save this individual. Pretty soon, a rescue squad from Gettysburg arrived, and took over, followed by a Gettysburg fire truck and a Greenville Rescue squad vehicle. All of them worked for about 5-10 minutes, and had a bunch of life saving equipment around them working feverishly. I left, not knowing what was going to happen. My wife and I set on our porch and watched for about 10 more minutes, and we saw the Greenville unit take out a stretcher, and several minutes later, they loaded the victim and left with sirens blazing…….
Every day, we watch sports, and cheer for our heroes on the field locally and nationally. We look up to them because we admire their hard work and determination to succeed at their craft. We appreciate their hard work they put in to be the best they can be, and we cheer when our team wins….we feel a part of it. Athletes should be leaders all around, when on the field and off, showing our young people what pride, hard work, and determination can accomplish. That is why we love sports, those athletes are doing things we couldn’t do, and we admire the skill and success they have achieved. They are heroes to us, and we expect them to act as such…..
As the ambulance left with the heart attack victim, I wondered how it turned out, were they successful, or did I just witness a tragedy? As everyone was leaving, I flagged down one of the officers,(I forgot his name, sorry!) and asked how it went? To my relief and surprise, the officer said when the ambulance left, the victim had a pulse! WOW! I was surprised and thankful seeing how much time and effort they put into saving the man’s life. Those squad members and Sheriff’s deputies worked miracles to save his life, and as far as I know as of now, they succeeded.
As I write this, I do not know the eventual outcome. All I know is that when I first arrived there, it did not look good. I want to thank those involved, especially Officer Joseph. If that poor man survives, it will be because Officer Joseph DID NOT GIVE UP! Today, I got to see a real unsung hero, like the rest that were there, do their job, with only one thought and that was to save someone….like the real heroes they are every day. They go unnoticed, unmentioned, and often abused and ridiculed, but they still do their acts as heroes…..They don’t quit, they don’t accept defeat, and they work for all of us. Thanks to all of you, especially you Officer Joseph, you guys are the real life heroes, and I won’t forget what I witnessed today!
That’s the way I saw it…..from the sidelines!
