N.C. Highway Patrol Trooper Jeremy Freeman was presented a Samaritan Service Award on Tuesday for his actions that saved the life of a woman in Bladen County.
The Highway Patrol Samaritan Award is an award given to a member of the Patrol who went beyond the call of duty to aid or assist someone. Freeman is assigned to Troop B, District 5 in Elizabethtown.
Col. Bill Grey, who is commander of the State Highway Patrol, and Secretary of the Department of Public Safty Frank Perry presented the awards to several members of the Patrol and citizens during a ceremony at the State Bureau of Investigation in Raleigh. The awards given included the State Highway Patrol Meritorious Service Award, Samaritan Award, and the Appreciation Award.
According to a news release about the award, on Sept. 12, Freeman made a traffic stop on N.C. 87 near Airport Road when he noticed a woman in the passenger seat of the vehicle was unresponsive. Freeman and the husband of the woman placed her in the back of the truck. The man told Freeman that his wife was taking morphine for medicinal purposes and may have overmedicated herself.
Freeman called for an ambulance, then realized the woman had a pulse, but was not breathing. The trooper inserted an oropharyngeal airway and gave the woman oxygen with his bag value mask.
The husband then told Freeman that the woman also was prescribed Naloxone for accidental overdoses. The woman was given an injection of the drug, and Freeman continued to give her oxygen while waiting for Bladen County EMS to arrive.
“Due to the distance to the nearest medical facility and the patient not breathing, it is my opinion that Trooper Freeman’s actions directly impacted the outcome of this event,” Grey said. “It is without a doubt that Trooper Freeman saved this woman’s life.”
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