SAPD Lake Officer Honored for Saving 11-Year-Old in Boating Accident

SAN ANGELO, TX -- 

SAPD Lake Officer C. Herrington was recently presented with the San Angelo Police and Fire Department’s Medical Director’s Challenge Coin for his swift application of tourniquets to an injured swimmer at Lake Nasworthy 4th of July Weekend.

SAPD Press Release - Good Samaritans, SAPD Lake Patrol Officers Aid Badly-Injured Lake Nasworthy Swimmer:

Sunday, July 7, 2019 — Around 2:30 p.m., San Angelo Police were dispatched to a boating accident on Lake Nasworthy off 2700 Red Bluff Ramp Road.

An investigation conducted by the Department’s Lake Patrol Officers revealed an 11-year-old girl who was wearing a life jacket had been swimming with friends near the shoreline when her legs became entangled with a disabled boat’s moving propeller. The boat’s operator rescued the girl from the water and applied a makeshift tourniquet before jumping into the water and pulling the boat ashore with help from the boat’s other occupants.

Once onshore, SAPD Lake Officers applied two Combat Application Tourniquets (C-A-T) to the swimmer's legs, which were covered with numerous lacerations.

The girl was transported to Shannon Medical Center where she underwent emergency surgery. She is reportedly in stable condition.

Alcohol was not a factor in yesterday’s accident and the Department is grateful for the boaters’ quick actions and swimmer’s use of a life jacket.