Tourniquet Credited With Saving Life Of Officer Wounded In Shootout
BOSTON (CBS) -- Boston Police Commissioner William Evans said Thursday that the application of a tourniquet saved the life of one of the officers wounded in a shootout in East Boston Wednesday night--and the officer who applied it had just had tourniquet training less than a week before.
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Evans said Thursday afternoon that Officer Richard Cintolo and Officer Matt Morris both remain in stable but critical condition after they were shot by Kirk Figueroa, a Boston constable, in his Gladstone Street home.
Morris had been shot in the leg, severing a main artery.
While tactical teams exchanged fire with Figueroa, other officers pulled Cintolo and Morris to safety and applied a tourniquet to Morris's leg.
"The officers were quick to put their hands (on the wound) as well as apply a tourniquet, which doctors later said probably saved his life," Evans said.
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Evans said Officer Morris was aware of how the tourniquet saved his life, and, though heavily sedated at Massachusetts General Hospital Wednesday, clearly said he wanted to thank the particular SWAT team officer who applied it.
"I had a conversation with Officer Morris down there, and one of the things he clearly said to me was, 'I want to thank this particular officer, he saved my life.' So, he knows how close he was to death."
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Evans said all BPD officers have carried tourniquets in their cars since the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013--but this particular officer was part of a group who had just had training in the use of tourniquets last Thursday.
"They just went to training this past Thursday put on by a doctor on the proper applying of tourniquets," Evans said. "So the officer who actually applied it just came off of training just this past Thursday."
"You talk about a coincidence really paying off for us," he said. "Thank God we were able to save the officer."
Tourniquets are also credited with saving the life of Boston Police Officer Kurt Stokinger, a 9-year veteran of the force, who was shot in Dorchester in January.