KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A couple visiting from Chicago were driving southbound on U.S. Highway 71 when the husband noticed that his wife wasn't breathing.
As luck would have it, two KCPD officers were nearby.
"Our adrenaline starts kicking in,” said Officer Richard DuChaine. “We just start running through the processes of what needs to be done, what do we need to check, how is this all going to play out."
It was Labor Day morning (Sept. 2) when DeChaine and Detective Jacob Shroyer saved a woman's life. Shroyer was heading home after a long day, but had his police radio on, heard dispatch, and rushed to the couple.
"As I came to 63rd and 71 Highway, I saw a vehicle with its flashers on and initially thought they were just there because they ran out of gas or something," said Shroyer.
It turned out to be much more serious than that. The couple was on their way to visit their daughter, when the wife became distressed, and the husband pulled over to call for help.
"I was like, oh no, I was just there," Shroyer said.
He had only made it two blocks up the road after passing them and immediately made a U-turn. Meanwhile, DuChaine was responding to the call, arriving just after Shroyer.
"I observed her lips were like discolored, like purple and blue which is a good indication that someone's not breathing," DuChaine said.
They started life-saving measures as they waited for EMS. Ironically, they were only a few blocks from an emergency room.
"He didn't know, because he wasn't from here. how close he was to a research hospital," Shroyer said.
But their efforts kept the woman stable, something DuChaine had done before. Two years ago, he saved a one-month-old baby in a similar situation. He has since kept in contact with the family.
"We helped them celebrate her one and just recently her two-year birthday," said DuChaine.
They also stayed in touch with this couple, visiting the two while she was in recovery.
“The following week we went back to the hospital, contacted the hospital staff, and asked if she was still there and she was,” said DuChaine. “So, we went to her room, her husband was there along with her and she was up and talking and moving around.”
Shroyer later received a text from the husband thanking the officers for saving his wife’s life: “I’m sure that if you had not acted as quickly as you did, she would not be with us.”
For them, this was the biggest reward.
"Fantastic,” said Shroyer. “Extremely grateful to hear that we were successful and that she's doing well."
And a feeling they’ll never forget.
"It's a good feeling because us as officers we don't often see what happens in the end," DuChaine said.
The woman is believed to have had a preexisting medical condition. The couple is now back home in Chicago.
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