SACRAMENTO, Calif. — On the afternoon of New Year’s Eve, Cory Patterson was the right person at the right place at the right time, and may very well have saved a man’s life.
He sprung into action to provide first-aid at the scene of an emergency that happened right in front of him.
“I was in the Army prior to this, so I want to say I’m well-trained in reacting to a crisis,” said Patterson. He’s a deputy with the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office but was off the clock when this happened.
“My wife and I were on a walk with our five-month-old, and then I heard the sounds of what I assumed was, like, a vehicle collision,” said Patterson.
He saw a car had veered off Zinfandel Drive and crashed into the chain link fence along the athletic fields of Mitchell Middle School in Rancho Cordova.
As bystanders called 9-1-1, Patterson approached the car.
“I had knocked on the window to see if the guy was responsive. He wasn’t responding to anything. He didn’t appear to be breathing,” he said.
Patterson enlisted the help of another bystander to break the passenger-side window and unlock the car.
“And then I was able to open the driver-side door and pull the man out," he said. "I checked his pulse. Didn’t have a pulse. Still wasn’t breathing. His face was starting to turn purple. That’s when I started doing CPR.”
He says he did about a minute of chest compressions before Rancho Cordova Police arrived on the scene with training fresh in his mind.
“Like, literally did CPR, first aid, AED training two weeks ago, re-certified on it…I mean, I was just doing, you know, what I’m trained to do: just acting in a crisis,” he said.
Patterson credits his wife with helping to control the chaos and organize bystanders at the scene.
“She helped me out by being able to do those things so I could concentrate on him.”
A Sheriff’s Office spokesperson says it was a seizure that caused the driver to go off the road.
Deputy Patterson encourages people to learn CPR, so they can step in during a crisis to help a loved one or a stranger.
A sheriff's office spokesperson adds the driver is expected to recover.
