Wyckoff Police, EMTs Honored For Saving 13-Year-Old's Life

WYCKOFF, N.J. — Two police officers and two emergency medical technicians were honored recently for saving a 13-year-old's life.

Officers Terrence Murphy and Kevin Pinches found the boy severely bleeding when they arrived on scene Aug. 22, said Chief David Murphy. The boy's arm went through a window pane and when he pulled it out, the glass cut his artery.

Murphy said the officers arrived to find "a lot blood-soaked towels."

Murphy ran to the car and applied a department-issued tourniquet, but when that wasn't working, he and Pinches remembered they have QuickClot in their vehicles.

QuickClot is a type of gauze that contains kaolin, which helps speed up the clotting process and stop bleeding.

Medical technicians Hayley Rooney and Jen Martin arrived on scene and quickly took the boy to the hospital, where he underwent surgery.

The four first responders were presented with letters of recognition at the Oct. 4 Township Committee meeting.

"To the credit of everyone here, had they not done what they’d done, the outcome would have been gravely different," Murphy said.

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Photo: Chief David Murphy, center, honors Officers Terrence Murphy and Kevin Pinches, 2nd Lt. Hayley Rooney, and Jen Martin at the Township Committee meeting Oct. 4. — Staff photo by Daniel Hubbard