Fire officials: Vancouver police officer, passers-by likely helped save jogger’s life

A Vancouver police officer and passers-by helped provide first aid — including relaying an AED about a mile down a trail along Lacamas Lake, to reach a man who’d collapsed with heart problems — and the Camas-Washougal Fire Department said their persistence likely helped save the man’s life.

The fire department said a man was jogging with friends along the Heritage Trail along the lake Tuesday when he went into cardiac arrest.

Others along the trail began performing CPR and called 911.

The fire department, along with the Vancouver Fire Department and East County Fire & Rescue, were dispatched to the scene, but Vancouver police Officer Eric Jennings arrived at the trailhead first.

Jennings arrived with an automated emergency defibrillator and handed it off to another jogger, who took it to the patient.

Camas-Washougal paramedics arrived shortly after and continued treatment efforts, and got the man off the trail.

The man was taken to a hospital. The fire department said he was alive and speaking while in the ambulance.

The fire department commended the bystanders for calling 911 and performing CPR, and thanked the other responding agencies.

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Updated 7/5/2016: This article has been updated and corrected with new information. Another passer-by relayed an AED from a responding officer to the jogger who fell ill, who was already being attended to by other trail users. The article originally misstated the order of events and the actors.