Police officers receive medals for saving a life

Officers Devon Straight and Charles Marose helped save a visitor’s life.

BY JOE HENDRICKS SUN CORRESPONDENT | jhendricks@amisun.com

BRADENTON BEACH – Police officers Devon Straight and Charles “Chuck” Marose received recognition last week for saving a life.

During the March 16 city commis sion meeting, Police Chief John Cosby presented Straight and Marose with lifesaving medals.

“It’s my honor to come before you today,” Cosby told the commission. “We’ll be presenting Officer Devon Straight and Officer Chuck Marose with a lifesaving medal. On Feb. 17, at approximately 6:09 p.m., both officers responded to a 62-year-old male who was found lying on the sidewalk in the 1900 block of Gulf Drive. Once they arrived, some people that were there were already doing CPR. They took over the CPR and they used one of our AEDs (automated external defibrillator) to bring the gentleman back. He was transported to Blake and a few days later he was released and he went back to Georgia.”

Cosby then stressed the importance of providing officers with the training and equipment they need to do their jobs.

“I keep telling you: Training and equipment. This is a perfect example of it being used appropriately and it saved somebody’s life,” Cosby said.

Included in the meeting packet was a memo that Straight sent Cosby on Feb. 20. In his written description of the events that transpired that evening, Straight noted “Officer Marose then took it upon himself to check on the patient’s condition later that same night and was advised the patient had been stabilized and should recover.”

Straight’s memo also included the following assessment: “I believe the quick implementation of CPR from bystanders and officers was critical to the patient’s survival before EMS could arrive; and the added benefit of having a readily available department-issued AED on-scene made our critical lifesaving efforts twice as effective.”