RALEIGH COUNTY, W.V. (LOOTPRESS) – Early Tuesday morning, Deputy H.L. Harvey, a deputy with the Raleigh County Sheriff’s department, was responsible for saving the life of a two-year-old boy. Deputy Harvey spoke with Lootpress, detailing what happened from the moment he saw the response call to when medical professionals took the unresponsive child into their care.
Harvey, who joined the department nearly two years ago, began by explaining that he is a road patrol officer, meaning he responds to incoming calls throughout the night.
Harvey was doing just this, routinely checking his dispatch logs, when at 4 a.m. on Tuesday, April 27, he noticed a pending call come across his computer. The call stated that there was an unresponsive two-year-old boy in his area.
Thinking back, Harvey says he was unsure if Emergency Medical Services (EMS) had been notified, but knew that he could reach the child faster due to his location.
“I just took off,” Harvey said.
When asked if he acted off of instinct, Harvey said he wasn’t sure what it was. He simply acted.
“I’m not sure. I guess you could call it instinct…I believe that’s what it was. I feel like having this job you have to have a little bit of a heart and be willing to help people. I believe everyone in this department and other law enforcement officers have that instinct to help someone and, obviously, when I saw it was a two-year-old, it kind of brought more emotion into it.”
After alerting the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) that he was on route, Harvey quickly made his way to the child’s location. When he arrived at the home, he stated that the father of the child opened the door, holding the boy in his arms. Reports state that the child had previously been gasping for air, but Harvey says the boy was completely unresponsive when he arrived.
“When he [the father] opened the door, I advised him to get in the cruiser. I told him we were going to the hospital; we weren’t waiting on EMS.”
Harvey raced to Beckley ARH Hospital, where the boy was taken by doctors who were able to perform life-saving measures on the child. According to the medical examination, the boy had accidentally ingested narcotics.
“I stayed at BARH until the child was transported,” Harvey said. “I was there while he was there. I wasn’t letting him out of my sight… I am just lucky that I was there in the area and had the opportunity to assist the child and get him what he needed.”
Harvey wasn’t able to go into more detail since the case is under criminal investigation by the Beckley Police Department; however, he was able to reveal that, last he heard, the child is doing well.
“It’s not my place and not my child. I did my portion, I guess. Of course, it still means something to me, and, if possible, I will definitely check in with the child.”
Although Harvey was only doing his job and seeks no praise, he does hope his actions will show the true desire of police officers: to help the community.
“As we all know, society right now is not very pro-police. I am lucky that I live in Raleigh County, West Virginia, and am surrounded by a lot of pro-police people and people that thank us for our service. Most of the stories people see right now are bad about us. Really, I’d like for this to be an eye-opener for the ones that don’t believe in us that, hey, we are doing things to help the community and even to the point that we are saving lives.”
