Valley man recognized for aiding stranger in distress

MAT-SU — “I found a guy in his truck and he’s not responding.”

That’s what the calm but concerned voice on the other end of Palmer Police Department dispatcher Jared Woody’s line proclaimed.

“Is he breathing?” Woody asked.

“Sir! Sir!” the voice called out to the unresponsive man before telling the dispatcher, “I can’t feel him breathing.”

It was 7:19 p.m., April 26, and Casey Rusher was nearly home from his job with Prism Designs and Construction, the 33-year-old noticed a truck stuck in his neighbor’s driveway on Scatters Way off of Pittman Road.

“I was driving home and saw a guy in the neighbor’s driveway and it looked like he had been shoveling to get his truck unstuck,” Rusher said. “I went to see what was going on, and he was in the truck and nonresponsive.”

So, Rusher said he did what any good neighbor would do — he stopped to check on the man, then he called 911 and began what felt like the longest 6 minutes, 8 seconds of his life administering CPR to the man. And as fate would have it, Rusher had just participated in a company-sponsored CPR training program the day before.

“I need you to go ahead, if you can, open the door of the vehicle and get him out and lay him flat on his back on the ground,” Woody tells Rusher on a copy of the 911 call. “I’m going to tell you how to do chest compressions. …”

After Woody gives Rusher a brief lesson in where to place his hands and how to administer the compressions — “I want you to pump the chest hard and fast at least twice per second and at least 2 inches deep” — Rusher begins. Woody tells him he needs to do this 600 times “or until help can take over.”

Rusher begins, counting aloud, “one, two, three, four, five …”

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Ordinary people rendering extraordinary aid is something that stands out for folks charged with responding to emergencies every day, said Alaina Anderson, dispatch supervisor for the Palmer Police Department. After becoming aware of Rusher’s efforts, she and PPD Chief Tom Remaley thought Rusher was a prime example of that.

“We were looking to start a new program to recognize people who go above and beyond,” Anderson said. “And as we were discussing this, this call came in.”

Calls that involve responding to a driver slumped over the wheel of a vehicle always make folks at the PPD nervous, Anderson said. That’s because on May 15, 1999, Officer James Rowland Jr. was shot and killed while checking on a person slumped over the wheel of a pickup. To date, he’s the only PPD officer killed in the line of duty.

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“You’re doing good,” Woody prods. “You’re at 350, so you’re over halfway there, so just keep going.”

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Along with keeping his cool and administering CPR to a stranger in distress, what makes Anderson take notice is that Rusher actually stopped to check. Most people, she said, would just drive by.

“First of all, what’s impressive is the fact that he stopped,” she said. “He pulls this guy out, someone he doesn’t know. I don’t know how many cars passed this vehicle with somebody in it who needed medical attention. He didn’t have to do the chest compressions, but he did.”

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“Perfect, you’re doing great, you just passed 400,” Woody continues. “We’re going to keep going until they take over for you. You have about another 150 to go, about a minute and a half, then we’ll start doing breaths, too.”

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In the end, the man Rusher tried to revive was pronounced dead by medical professionals. But Rusher gave the man a chance, something he said helps him sleep at night. Had he simply ignored the situation and passed by without checking, Rusher said he would have wondered for the rest of his life if he could’ve possibly saved a life, but couldn’t be bothered to try.

“This definitely makes me think differently,” he said of the experience. “I wouldn’t want it on my conscience that I didn’t do everything that I could have.”

If the roles were reversed and he was in need of help, “I’d hope someone would stop because it could make a difference,” Rusher said. “It’s nice to know I did what I could. I think it was good I stopped and I did what I could.”

Anderson said she hopes people who read Rusher’s story will learn to act on impulses to help without unnecessarily putting their own lives in danger, and that CPR training does pay off. In fact, a Mat-Su Borough program already is in place where emergency responders teach CPR to all of the district’s eighth-graders.

“The more people out there who know CPR, the safer we’ll all be,” she said. “Also, if you see something, call 911 to activate the emergency response. … This ultimately wasn’t a good outcome, but if my dad were on the side of the road and had some kind of cardiac event, I would hope somebody would stop and help. Casey didn’t have to stop, but he did.”

Contact reporter Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.