VA Police Officer resuscitates car crash victim three times

An off-duty VA police officer was in the right place at the right time Oct. 23, and used his training to save the life of an elderly motorist.

Clinton Wimer, a police officer with the Salem VA, was heading home after a 12-hour shift when he saw a vehicle leave the road.

“I was heading out of town when a vehicle coming toward me in the opposite lane went off the road, hit a tree and bounced into a sign,” Wimer said. “I went back to render aid, thinking it was someone looking at their phone or driving distracted.”

When he got to the vehicle, Wimer, a seven-year Navy Veteran, found an elderly man behind the wheel who was unresponsive.

“I thought maybe he had a heart attack, but he was unresponsive, and the car was smoking so I needed to move him. I used a seatbelt cutter to free him from the vehicle and took him a safe distance away and checked his vitals.”

No finding a pulse or breath, Wimer gave the man CPR and his heartbeat and breathing returned, so he moved him to a recovery position. A couple minutes later, he lost his pulse again and Wimer gave him two rounds of CPR before his vitals returned.

“At that time a lady stopped and said she was EMS trained, so she monitored his vitals while I checked the man’s wife who appeared unharmed. When the woman who was helping said he lost his pulse again, we started CPR again and about thirty seconds after we got him back, Roanoke County Fire and EMS arrived and loaded him into an ambulance and took him to the hospital.”

While Wimer didn’t get the name of the driver, or the woman who helped him, he’s confident the man was alive when he made it to the hospital. Looking back on the event, he has a message for everyone.

“I recommend everyone get CPR training. If you’re an employee (of the VA), you never know when you’ll have to use those skills. It’s definitely worth it. I thought I was done with my day, and out of nowhere a situation arose where someone needed help.”