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Iván García has only been a trainee at the National Police force's Malaga provincial police station for two months, but he has already saved someone's life.
It was his final day on duty in the patrol car on Sunday 31 August before moving on to his next posting at Malaga Airport when a call came through at about 1pm concerning an elderly woman who was unconscious at a home in Malaga city. Her face and lips were starting to turn purple.
García's police colleague, Alfonso Solís, put his foot down on the accelerator and arrived at the house in less than two minutes. "The situation was critical when we arrived: she was lying on the floor, not breathing and unconscious," the two officers said.
With the help of a local resident they reached the property and gained access to the kitchen, where the 85-year-old woman was on the floor and unresponsive although her daughter tried to give her CPR.
Out of shock the family had not reported the woman had choked on food. "Because of the symptoms, the 061 emergency health service operators were giving them instructions on how to perform CPR, as if it were a heart attack," said the officers. Solís asked if it was a heart attack, to which the woman's daughter replied: "No I gave her a piece of melon".
García and Solís took over and lifted the woman up by her armpits. García started to perform the Heimlich manoeuvre, while Solís inserted his fingers into the woman's mouth to try to open her airway.
On the third attempt, the manoeuvre worked. The veteran officer saw her expel the small piece of melon. "There, the woman took a breath of air; she had regained consciousness and gradually regained the colour in her face," the officers said.
García performed the manoeuvre once more, noticing the woman was improving noticeably. They then gently sat her in a chair and within half a minute medical staff were on scene and took her to hospital.
This was the first humanitarian intervention carried out by García, who only completed his training at the National Police college in Ávila on 31 May.
"In an emergency like that you act purely instinctively, automatically... it's something I was trained to do, but I didn't know what it was like to be in that situation until I experienced it," he said.
Meanwhile, for Solís who has been with the force for 25 years, he said there is no action that can be compared to saving a person's life. "It was the best intervention of my life, this is the most beautiful thing about the profession," he said. He was full of praise for his younger colleague: "He performed the manoeuvre perfectly".
Since their life-saving actions, both officers have been concerned about the woman. SUR can confirm that, although she is still in hospital, there are no longer fears for her life. "We are very happy for her and her family," the officers said.
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