Two from Sheriff's Office Honored with Livesaver Award

The Sheriff's Office awarded Capt. Bryan Howard and Deputy Eric Lewis the Livesaver Award during a ceremony Wednesday that honored citizens and deputies alike for heroic actions taken in the last year, a news release said.

On Nov. 6, 2010, Howard was off-duty but arrived at the scene of a farm tractor accident on the Auburn-Enumclaw Road.  A 15-year-old boy driving the tractor was struck from behind by another vehicle.  The accident threw the boy and the tractor into a ditch filled with water, diesel fuel and animal waste from a nearby dairy. The tractor was on top of the boy and he was partially submerged.  

Howard immediately entered the contaminated ditch and held the boy’s head out of water until aid arrived about 15 minutes later.

Similarly, Deputy Eric Lewis was home and off-duty on Dec. 29, 2010, when his neighbor came over, frantically knocking on the door.  The neighbor said his granddaughter was not breathing after a seizure.

Lewis went next door and found the two year-old girl had turned blue and was not getting enough oxygen.  He determined her airway was blocked by mucus and her tongue.  After he cleared her airway she began to breathe on her own.  Aid arrived and the little girl was sent to the hospital.

The outcome of both events would have been much worse had Howard and Lewis not acted so quickly.