March 28--Walter Bland has been a Chicago police officer for 29 years and this was the first time he got a standing ovation.
He and Officer Michael Ephraim, had just revived a man who collapsed while he and his wife waited for a flight at Midway Airport Thursday morning.
"It was nice,'' Bland said.
Bland and Ephraim were on patrol inside the airport when they got a call around 9:30 a.m. about a person not breathing at the Harry Caray's restaurant there.
"Mike laid him on the ground and started CPR,'' Bland said. "I positioned myself to the right of Officer Ephraim.''
After a while, "I asked him if he needed a break,'' Bland said, and he took over performing chest compressions on the man.
"While I was doing them, he started to breathe again,'' Bland said. "His chest started to rise on his own. I could see his stomach and his diaphragm (moving), so we backed off and monitored him and waited for CFD.
"It seemed like about a minute, maybe two minutes,'' and the man "shook his head and moved his left leg.''
At that point, a third officer, Sherida Shepherd, grabbed an automatic external defibrillator (AED) from the nearby food court and a fourth officer, John Munoz, attached leads to the man's chest.
"It advised no shock,'' Bland said of the AED.
Chicago Fire Department paramedics placed an oxygen mask on him and took him to MacNeal Hospital in Berwyn, where he remained Friday, Bland said. A Chicago Police News Affairs statement said he was in serious condition.
Bland did not know why the man collapsed. He and his wife had been eating at Harry Caray's while waiting to catch a flight to visit their grandchildren.
Just within the last six weeks, Bland said he had been given training on the use of the AED and CPR. "This was good because I didn't hesitate, I knew what to do. I knew exactly what to do.''
Bland, 55, who transferred to the airport from the Loop's Central District, said his actions were "just part of the job. I am thankful that I was trained properly so that I could respond without hesitation to help save a life.''
