North Little Rock police said advanced medical training helped officers save a man's life Wednesday after his throat was slashed.
Officers responded at 4:37 p.m. to the Willow House apartment complex at 2500 Willow St., off West Pershing Boulevard. They found Curtis Smith, 57, of Hensley "bleeding profusely from a large open wound" on his neck, according to a police report.
Smith reportedly identified a resident of the apartment complex, Frederick Sullivan, 71, as the man who cut him. Police found Sullivan nearby and arrested him.
A witness later told police that Smith and Sullivan had been arguing over whether Sullivan "had a problem" with Smith's daughter, according to the report. The confrontation turned physical, and Sullivan reportedly slashed Smith's throat with a box cutter. Smith then grabbed a pipe from his vehicle and chased Sullivan.
Officer Eric Cheatham applied pressure and hemostatic gauze to Smith's wound until medical personnel arrived to transport him to UAMS Medical Center. Police spokesman Sgt. Brian Dedrick said that, according to medical personnel, Smith would have died if Cheatham and other officers hadn't treated him at the scene.
Metropolitan Emergency Medical Services has trained multiple law enforcement agencies in central Arkansas to identify and treat traumatic injuries since 2014. As part of that initiative, the Arkansas Trauma System has supplied agencies with medical kits containing gauze, tourniquets, bandages and chest seals.
Many sheriff's offices and police departments only trained in CPR beforehand.
The ambulance service said in December that lawmen had used the new equipment and training, officially known as tactical combat casualty care, to save at least 25 lives. The number has grown since then. Little Rock police said an officer used the training, and a tourniquet, to save a gunshot victim's life April 16.
Dedrick said North Little Rock police officers, as of Thursday, had been credited with five lives saved. The department and the Faulkner County sheriff's office was the first to participate in the training.
Sullivan was charged with first-degree battery in the cutting Wednesday. He was being held in the Pulaski County jail in lieu of $100,000 bond late Thursday.
Metro on 04/29/2016