Oro Valley Patrol Officer Alex Carillo went above and beyond
It’s one thing to save even just one life in your lifetime. It’s amazing to do it twice. Imagine saving two lives in your first year as a patrol officer. That is exactly what happened to Oro Valley Police Officer Alex Carillo last year.
Saving two lives
Alex was the first officer on site in two instances last fall. He used his well-honed CPR skills to bring a lifeless 1 year old to life. He did the same a few months later for a 40 year old cardiac arrest victim.
We met Officer Carillo. We found him to be as affable a gentleman as one could ever meet. He is "Dad" to a three year old son. He was born and raised in Douglas. He comes from a corrections family. He was in the Air Force. He was a car salesman. He hated that. But he does love working in public safety in Oro Valley.
An unresponsive child, lifeless, not moving
Alex thought: “We need to do our job here. We need to be the calm ones and we need to fix the situation. I start doing CPR. It seem like forever. She’s not giving me anything. And then, out of know where, she throws up a huge amount of water. Water gets all over me. I can’t tell you how great that felt. It was an insane amount of water out of this little body. She starts breathing again... labored breathing. It was a great moment. That’s why I signed up to do this.”
A cardiac arrest
Maybe four weeks later “We get a call. A male who is having a heart attack. He just passed out speaking to us.” When he got to the house, Alex found the male. “He’s purple. He’s blue. I thought: ‘This is bad’. I start doing my CPR and ask despatch for medical assistance ASAP. I’m doing this for what seems forever. He starts coughing. I’m seeing signs of life. ‘Ok’ I think,
we’re getting somewhere’.”
To Carillo’s relief, a GFRD Chief and crew come to the door. “I’m thinking. This is good. This guy must know what to do.” Finally, Alex can take a moment to reflect: “I look around. I see three little kids’ bicycles....This guy has people who really need him.”
Alex trailed the ambulance to the hospital. “The whole thing was amazing. We do our job. The fire fighters do their job. The doctors do their job. At the end of the day this guy was safe. It was amazing.”
"I just like helping people"
Carillo has a 'can do' attitude. “When it’s time for ‘big time plays’ I want to be ready and I want to know that I can take that shot. I do my best to make sure I keep up my CPR. I keep up my physical fitness. I just like helping people. I want to be the guy that helps somebody when they need something." Alex looks young as you can see from his picture, but he is really long in years. Oro Valley residents are lucky to have him.
Be sure to give Alex a "thumbs up" when you see him on patrol.
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Listen about the two incidents as told by Alex to Jim Horn in his new series "Unsung Heroes."
