By Pat Culverhouse

Minden’s Deputy Chief of Police Tokia Harrison has been trained in life-saving techniques in classrooms, but Saturday she found herself in a position to put those lessons to use in a real-life emergency.

Harrison and MPD Officer Kendale Booker were working a security detail for an event at the Forestry Building on the local fairgrounds when a woman suffered a medical emergency.

“She just passed out,” Harrison remembered. “At the time we didn’t know if was a heart problem or something else, but we knew we had to do something.”

Harrison and Booker immediately called for an ambulance, and then their training kicked in.

“We moved the people away to give us room and began performing CPR, each of us switching places as we learned in our classes,” she said. “There was a lady attending the event who was a nurse, and she helped.”

Harrison said the ambulance responded very quickly, the EMS personnel took over and applied defibrillators. She was then transported to the hospital where, Harrison said, she appears to be recovering.

“The last time I checked she was doing OK,” she said.

Harrison said officers in the Minden police department receive annual training for certification as first responders, and just recently completed a more strenuous Tactical Emergency Casualty Care for Law Enforcement Officers training.

That training was conducted by Brian Sparks, who serves as the MPD’s Special Response Team medical officer. Sparks, who is a certified tactical paramedic, also owns SMR Training Solutions.

“Brian and his group worked us really hard in both tactics and cooperation with EMS during that training,” she said. “I didn’t know all the things he and his people were teaching us would be put to use so quickly.”

Harrison said this incident was the first time she had ever been called upon to put her training to practical use.

“For both of us, our training just kicked in at that moment,” she said. “While the EMS people were working on the lady, we were doing what we have been trained to do in cooperating with them. It worked just fine.”

Harrison said both she and Booker believe what they did Saturday evening should only be considered a part of their responsibility to Minden’s citizens.

“We were doing what we were supposed to do…doing our job as we are expected to do, and love to do, every day,” she said.