Frustration to compassion: Buffalo Schools teacher details lifesaving actions in overdose road incident

Thanks to an alert response and familiarity with CPR, Buffalo high school teacher Jim Damon is credited with saving a woman’s life Tuesday after she suffered a drug-overdose-related medical emergency while driving.

His unlikely story of heroism, however, began with a feeling familiar to many in busy early evening traffic: frustration.

The Emerson School of Hospitality science teacher was westbound on the Scajaquada Expressway toward SUNY Buffalo State University about 4:15 p.m. when a driver struck the side mirror of his new car. Instead of stopping to acknowledge the incident, the driver continued to maneuver erratically in front of him. Damon followed the car and began recording video.

Damon watched the car make the sharp, descending turn on the ramp connecting the Scajaquada to the I-190 south. Once on the I-190 however, the driver who scraped Damon’s car swerved across lanes, striking barriers on both sides of the highway before eventually coming to a halt after veering onto the left shoulder and colliding at low speed with the highway’s center median near Ralph C. Wilson Centennial Park, Damon recounted.

His emotions had swung from frustration to concern, he said.

“I wasn’t worried about my car, it wasn’t about the damage that she could cause, I knew that she was having some kind of medical emergency and that she needed help,” Damon said Thursday.

Damon parked in front of the driver’s car and was on the phone with 911. He noticed the driver’s window was open, saw the woman’s name on a badge on her shirt and called it to try to wake her. When that did not work, Damon said he checked her wrists and neck for a pulse, then was advised by the dispatcher to check her Adam’s apple. She was unconscious and unresponsive, according to both Damon and the Sheriff’s Office.

Summoning the emergency training required for him to coach Emerson’s varsity basketball and soccer teams, Damon pulled the woman out of her vehicle, laid her on the side of the road and began CPR using rescue breaths as Erie County Sheriff’s Detective Jonathan Hanna – off-duty but nearby at the time – arrived first and helped with resuscitation.

Erie County Sheriff’s Detective David Zamorek and Deputy Kyle Hoffman arrived soon after, with the latter inserting a flexible tube into the woman’s airway for stabilization. A state trooper then identified a likely overdose and administered Narcan. The group effort was able to establish a pulse, the state trooper said, allowing the woman to be rushed to the hospital for further treatment.

Damon lauded the emergency response.

“I understand now how first responders feel – they do this every day – to be able to go back to the next call and be able to handle every one with that level of respect and dignity, it takes a real hero to do that,” he said.

The woman, said by law enforcement to be in her late 20s or 30s, was in stable condition Wednesday after a “medical emergency induced by a drug overdose.”

Damon said he shared a lesson with his Emerson classes Wednesday about why medical trainings, which might feel unnecessary at the time, could prove valuable in a crisis moment.

“When you guys learn how to do hands-only CPR, that matters, when you learn how to take your own pulse, that actually matters,” said Damon, who added that relaying the story to his class helped him decompress and process. He said he did not draw too much attention to his act throughout the day because his boss announced her retirement.

“I certainly did not want to rain on her parade,” he said.

Nevertheless, the school district has shared its appreciation.

“During this season of giving, it’s heartwarming to hear that Mr. Damon … quickly and selflessly acted to save a fellow Western New Yorker’s life and about the importance of knowing CPR,” said Buffalo Schools Superintendent Tonja M. Williams in a statement. “This act of bravery reinforces that Buffalo is truly a ‘City of Good Neighbors.’ “

Damon, at Emerson for four years but a teacher in the district for a decade, said he did what anyone would do in the situation. He was hesitant to appear at a news conference Thursday at the Sheriff’s Office, but he felt compelled to send a message.

“Hands-only CPR is a really integral thing that’s really easy for anyone to learn,” he said. “I just wish more people were certified in that, because it could be a loved one for any of us.”

Personally, Damon said he’s been emotional since the incident, from the adrenaline in a flight-or-flight situation to chats with his wife, who works as a trauma social worker at a local hospital.

“It goes over and over in my head that there was a reason I was there that day,” Damon said.