PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A police officer in Delaware County is being praised for saving a teenager’s life with the homemade triage bag he keeps inside his patrol car.
Back in January, Prospect Park Police Officer Dave Voorhees was called out to the scene of a shooting. A 17-year-old had been critically shot in the torso.
Voorhees ran back to his patrol car and grabbed the first-aid kit, packed with tourniquets, scissors, gloves and special wound dressings.
“I immediately began to pack the wound and apply pressure” with QuikClot gauze, he recalled, which stops someone from quickly bleeding out. “It’s infused with QuikClot to immediately soak up the blood.”
The teen was rushed to the hospital and survived. Voorhees was credited for his quick thinking and life-saving triage tools.
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He said he started stocking the items in his car after going through a federal active shooter training program.
“You learn what you should keep in this active shooter bag because nine times out of 10, we as the police are first on scene, so immediately we have to be both EMS, police officer — protect and serve,” he said.
He and his chief are now planning to equip each patrol car with one. Almost all of the items can be ordered online, if anyone is interested in making their own.
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“If you can buy yourself 10 seconds to get to the hospital, that 10 seconds can be the difference between life and death,” Voorhees added. “And in this situation, seconds counted, and we got him to the hospital in just enough time to save his life.”
Voorhees will be honored for his heroic actions at a Delaware County Council meeting Wednesday night in Media.