It's a good thing Yolo restaurant in Fort Lauderdale hires off-duty cops for security, because without them, Jenon Wheby might not be alive today.
The mother of four was out with her husband, Jeremy Wheby, for dinner at Yolo and then a night cap at Vibe nightclub next door. Jenon slipped while carrying a beer. The bottle broke, and the glass sliced her wrist open, rupturing an artery.
Police officers are adept at slapping handcuffs and restraints on arms. Officer Nick Rollins knew a tourniquet placed correctly under the arm would stop an arterial bleed in the wrist.
"He was right there at the right time and went above and beyond, and according to the ER doctors, you saved her life," said police Chief Frank Adderly to Officer Rollins at an impromptu ceremony Wednesday.
Officer Rollins was with two other officers working the detail Saturday night. All three of them helped, said Jeremy.
"I'm very grateful. I just want to say thank you very much again, I really appreciate it," Wheby said to applause.
As Jeremy describes it, the sudden chaos of the accident didn't impact Officer Rollins.
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"Officer Rollins disappeared and like Superman, he came back with gloves and a tourniquet and a thing and she was bleeding a lot, quite a bit, and he put this tourniquet on. And when she got to the hospital, she said she had lost a lot of blood and without the tourniquet she may not have made it."
Officer Nick Rollins says he just put his training to use.
"That something we did had a direct result of saving somebody's life, that's a huge feeling," Rollins said.
To a grateful husband, what the officer did was much more than just utilize his training.
"He was doing his job, everyone says, He even said, when I called to thank him he said, ‘I was just doing my job,’ but truthfully, you're not a paramedic and you didn't have to do that. But you did and because of it, my wife's alive today. So I'm just very grateful," said Wheby, who added that in retrospect, he's in awe of how Rollins handled the emergency.
"I'll tell you, he was like a ninja, he was all over the place, and then the whole time we're there, he was like ‘Relax, it's gonna be fine.’ I was starting to freak out a little bit," Wheby said, to a round of laughter from the group of officers watching.
When asked if this was the highlight of his young law enforcement career, being compared to Superman and a ninja, Rollins said, ""it's definitely pretty high, yes sir!"
Rollins then added that he would not be asking his boss, who was standing right next to him, for a raise. The chief just smiled.
