Ansonia Police Officer Joseph Jackson was directing traffic for a tree trimming crew on Garden Street in Seymour about 1 p.m. Wednesday afternoon when a man came running out of a nearby house.
The man’s wife was having an allergic reaction to medication and was having trouble breathing.
“A guy comes out yelling and screaming ‘Move the cones, I’ve got an ambulance coming!’” Jackson said.
Jackson, an Ansonia cop working a private road duty job at the time, wasn’t on the Seymour police frequency, so he hadn’t heard any medical calls. When the man ran back into his house, Jackson followed.
He was greeted by a scary sight.
“His wife was on the floor. She couldn’t breathe,” Jackson said. “She started turning colors and then she went out. She started turning purple. She couldn’t talk anymore.”
Jackson performed CPR on the woman as her husband tried to keep her airways open.
But the woman was still struggling to breathe, he said.
Thankfully, an ambulance arrived within minutes.
Jackson said the ambulance crew gave the woman a dose of epinephrine, after which her breathing was restored.
And not a moment too soon, Jackson said.
“It’s a good thing the ambulance came right after and hit her with the EpiPen,” Jackson said. “She was gasping, just shutting down. It’s a good thing they showed up.”
The paramedics got the woman breathing better and sped her from the scene to Griffin Hospital, where she was listed in stable condition Wednesday afternoon.
The woman’s grandson told the Valley Indy that his grandmother was breathing better and planned to return home Thursday.
Life-saving situations are nothing new to Jackson, a popular officer whose nickname is “Action.”
Last March he was credited with saving the lives of two Ansonia babies in separate incidents.
And in 2005 Jackson resuscitated Ansonia Alderwoman Joan Radin after she went into cardiac arrest in the Wakelee Avenue pharmacy she owns.
“I can’t get away from this stuff,” Jackson joked Wednesday. “But that’s the way it goes.”
“The guy does it all,” said Seymour Police Chief Michael Metzler, who said the woman was lucky Jackson happened to be around.
“It was one of those ‘right time, right place’ deals,” the chief said. “He’s one of those guys that is very active and not afraid to make a move and do what you’ve got to do.
“People say you can never get a cop when you need one,” Metzler went on. “Well, here he is!”
