First responders including VSP trooper save a life at Waterbury golf course

STATE OF VERMONT

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY

VERMONT STATE POLICE

First responders including VSP trooper save a life at Waterbury golf course

WATERBURY, Vermont (Monday, Aug. 12, 2024) — The quick actions and teamwork of community members and first responders from the Waterbury Ambulance Service and Vermont State Police saved the life of a woman who experienced a medical emergency at a Waterbury golf course earlier this summer.

The incident occurred July 3 at the Blush Hill Country Club when the 68-year-old woman collapsed and became unresponsive while walking to the first hole with her group. Her party called 911, and several bystanders began performing CPR while emergency services were en route. Waterbury Ambulance Service arrived swiftly, and volunteer Brian Lindner, a former Vermont State Police trooper, immediately began CPR.

Trooper Mae Murdock was among several troopers from the Berlin Barracks to reach the scene minutes later. She took over chest compressions and tirelessly administered CPR until first responders set up an automated device known as a LUCAS machine to continue resuscitation.

“When asked if she needed a break, (Trooper Murdock) continued to shrug off the offer of assistance and kept going. This had to be exhausting both physically and mentally,” a member of the woman’s golfing party wrote in an email to state police commanders several days after the incident. “At the time I thought they were in vain; a week later, I can tell you her efforts were lifesaving.”

Maggie Burke, executive director of Waterbury Ambulance Service, praised the efforts of all first responders that day, and she called Trooper Murdock’s performance of CPR “textbook.”

“Her precise chest compressions, combined with the use of the LUCAS device, were critical to keeping the patient alive,” said Burke, who also was on scene July 3.

First responders stabilized the victim, Sue Flynn, and brought her by ambulance to the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington, where she continued to receive care. She has since been discharged and is continuing her recovery at home. She and her family granted the Vermont State Police permission to use her name.

“I will forever be grateful for the Waterbury Ambulance Service and Vermont State Police,” Sue Flynn said in an email to VSP. “I am here today because of them! We are so lucky to have them serving our community!!”

Added her husband, Jim, in an email to Trooper Murdock: “I have no doubt that your ability to perform CPR had a great deal to do with her being here today. So grateful to have troopers like you serving our community! Keep doing what you’re doing and stay safe!”

Trooper Murdock joined the Vermont State Police in July 2018. Upon graduation from the Vermont Police Academy the following January, she was assigned as a Field Force trooper to the New Haven Barracks. She worked in New Haven until September 2023, when she transferred to Berlin.

Trooper Murdock’s commander at the Berlin Barracks, Lt. Thomas Howard, has nominated her for the Vermont State Police’s annual Lifesaving Award.

“I cannot thank Trooper Murdock enough,” the victim’s family friend wrote in his email. “I was on the ground next to her begging my friend to live, and thanks to her efforts, she definitely saved a life that we thought for sure was lost.”

Jim Flynn noted the importance of initial lifesaving efforts by bystanders, and he encouraged everyone to learn CPR. “I’m definitely going to take a class!” he said.

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