The city of Palos Heights honored police Detective Jake Wiegand with a life saving award after he prevented the death of a student at Trinity Christian College in April.
In the early morning of April 25, Wiegand told The Regional he responded with three other officers to a call at Trinity at about 5 a.m. of a student who was bleeding from a self-inflicted cut.
Wiegand said a campus Resident Assistant found the female student bleeding in a bathroom and made the report. When the officers arrived, they reportedly found the young woman in a second story bathroom with a “pool of blood.”
“We found her in the bathroom holding a paper towel to the wound,” Wiegand said. “It was very apparent she had slit her wrist in a catastrophic way that would end her life. There was quite a lot of blood on the floor.”
Wiegand said he removed the paper towel from the student’s wrist and applied a tourniquet to her arm and applied a pressure bandage to the wound until the paramedics arrived about five minutes later.
Wiegand said the student was conscious and “fairly alert” when the officers found her but that she “seemed to be in a little bit of shock.”
He continued to talk to her and explain what he was doing while waiting for the paramedics.
The student was taken to a hospital for treatment and survived.
In presenting the award to Wiegand, Palos Heights Police Chief Michael Yott stated, “Your quick response time, immediate and accurate assessment of the situation, expert execution of emergency care, and calm and professional conduct were crucial in bridging the time before the woman could be treated by medical professionals. Your actions are indicative of your diligence, expertise, training, and dedication to your duty and are a credit to the department, yourself, and the Palos Heights community.”
This is the fifth life saving award Wiegand has received in his police career.
He has previously received similar awards twice in his five years with the Palos Heights Police Department, and twice before while he was an officer with the University of Chicago campus police. He also serves as the instructor for the Palos Heights Police’s emergency medical training class, which Yott noted he had taught just one day prior to the incident at Trinity.
“He is a huge asset to the department,” Yott said.
“This is not the first of these awards we’ve presented, and it will not be the last,” Mayor Robert Straz said. “It just shows the dedication of our officers to their duty. They step up and answer the call and they’re there for the community when people are in need.”
