GENEVA — Some tales of heroism were covered extensively by area media at the time. Others happened out of the public eye.
However, all of those acts — involving police, firefighters and citizens — were recognized recently during the annual Ontario County Safety Council awards ceremony at Club 86.
“I am in awe of these award winners, who unselfishly and courageously took chances to protect the lives of persons who in many cases were total strangers,” Sheriff Phil Povero said.
Awards for 2021 were given in several categories:
Dr. Ben Lankheet Heart Starter Awards
This award is named for Dr. Ben Lankheet, who started the AED (automated external defibrillator) program in Ontario County.
• Timothy VanDamme, Alexandra Schreck, Jamie McCarrick, sheriff’s Deputy Robert Holland and sheriff’s Sgt. Dana Egburtson for their response on Oct. 1 at Midlakes High School, where a football referee collapsed before a game. The referee is Mike Connell, a longtime senior probation officer for the county.
VanDamme, Schreck and McCarrick were the first to reach Connell and began CPR while Holland, the school resource officer, went to his patrol car and retrieved an AED. Egburtson, a spectator who was off duty at the time, also responded.
Holland drove his patrol car onto the field. Egburtson gave Connell one shock with the AED and got a pulse. Connell’s care was turned over to ambulance personnel, and he was flown by medical helicopter to Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, where he was alert and talking the next morning.
• Laurie Owen, a registered nurse at F.F. Thompson Hospital, and Jessie Shulla, a patient care technician at the hospital, were having lunch on July 27 at Olive Garden in Victor when a diner stopped breathing.
Restaurant employees started CPR, but Owen saw it was being done inefficiently and took over. Shulla could not find a pulse at first, but a short time later Owen’s CPR worked and the man started breathing and talking again. He was taken to the hospital.
• Deputy Scott Lambert was on duty May 19 when he responded to a medical call in Gorham and waited with the 80-year-old male resident for the ambulance to arrive.
During that time, the man passed out and Lambert could not find a pulse. He hooked up his AED and delivered one shock to the man. The man’s heart restarted, and he began to breathe on his own.
Gold Seal Awards
• Sheriff’s Inv. Sam Colburn and deputies Garrett Fries, Brett Lowry and Robert Middlebrook III were recognized for their actions on March 5, when they responded to a fire in the town of Canandaigua.
The home was engulfed in flames when they arrived, and while a woman made it outside, her 72-year-old husband was trapped upstairs. Colburn and the deputies put up a ladder and caught the man when he jumped out a second-story window.
• On March 27, state Troopers Brian Hotchkiss and Jason Stirk responded to South Bristol to help deputies and others search for a missing 2-year-old girl.
In the dark, Hotchkiss and Stirk searched an area behind the home and found a path through the woods. They later found a small footprint and saw a speck of pink in the distance.
After climbing a hill, they found the girl sitting on a rock in the middle of a stream. They radioed others in the search party and brought the girl to her family and an ambulance.
• Sheriff’s deputies Garrett Fries, Ian Hall, David Keirsbilck and Alexander Colburn — Colburn is a firefighter too — were honored for their efforts on June 23, when a Shortsville home caught fire with a teenage boy trapped upstairs. Also recognized were local firefighters Jason Whipple, Richard Yarn, Bryan Schrader and William Ciardi.
Due to smoke, the first deputies at the scene could not make it upstairs. The firefighters, with air packs, were able to get through the smoke and flames to find the teen, who died several days later.
Life Saving Awards
• Geneva Police Officer Jesse Cole and Destinee Egburtson — an off-duty emergency medical technician with Finger Lakes Ambulance — were recognized for their actions on Nov. 6, when they responded to Wadsworth street for an alleged shaken-baby case.
They found a 3-month-old infant with irregular breathing and not reacting to stimuli; along with other Finger Lakes Ambulance personnel, they administered emergency care. The child was taken to Geneva General Hospital and later Golisano Children’s Center in Rochester, where a brain bleed was diagnosed.
• Sheriff’s Sgt. Mike Rago was recognized for an incident last October, when he was off duty but happened upon an accident involving a motorcycle and a van.
The motorcycle driver suffered a severe leg injury and was bleeding extensively. Rago used his belt for a tourniquet until ambulance personnel arrived.
The driver was treated at a hospital.
Meritorious Service Citizen Awards
• Canandaigua-area residents Michael Flaherty and Jeffrey Braddon were recognized for their actions on June 25, when they used their boats to help rescue several kayakers caught in a storm in the middle of Canandaigua Lake. Some of the kayakers were clinging to their overturned vessels when help arrived.
Rago and Deputy Bill Martin also responded, helping the kayakers to shore.
• On Feb. 27, county resident Elizabeth Potter jumped into action when a 5-year-old boy suffered a severe cut to his foot/ankle from a hockey skate blade. They boy was drifting in and out of consciousness.
Potter applied pressure and wrapped the wound with a towel while trying to keep the boy calm, even giving sternum rubs to keep him awake as he was going into shock. The boy’s father called 911 and the boy was later rushed to a hospital, eventually making a full recovery.
• On Sept. 27, Alberto Alejandro and Jessica Reed pulled a man from a burning vehicle after it crashed head-on into a tractor-trailer on Route 14 in the town of Geneva.
The man, who had a medical episode that caused the crash, recovered after being taken to a local hospital.
Letters of Commendation
• The Canandaigua Police Department was recognized for its work last October, after a man on a scooter was hit and killed by a vintage pickup truck on South Main Street. The driver fled the scene.
Following what police called an intense investigation, the truck was found in a self-storage facility in the town of Canandaigua and the owner arrested for vehicular manslaughter. He later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to prison.
• Canandaigua PD Det. Daniel Visingard was honored for numerous investigations last year that resulted in 14 people being arrested for trying to arrange sex with a teenager.
In the online investigation, Visingard posed as male and female children on social media websites. He would have conversations at all hours, sometimes when he was off-duty, and made the arrests when the defendant showed up for the expected meeting.
“These awards always remind me of how fortunate we are to live in a county where people, who without reservation, eagerly help others during a time of crisis,” Povero said.