Cd'A police officer saves life of 16-year-old

COEUR d'ALENE - Officer Justin Bangs thought the boy was dead.

The 16-year-old wasn't breathing.

Bangs and his partner discovered the teen after responding Monday to a report of a poisoning at a 13th Street home.

When the officers arrived at the scene, Bangs said it sounded like there was a fight going on. There was a lot of yelling.

They found the unresponsive teen lying on an upstairs bed.

"A person yelled out that he was dead because he had drank too much alcohol," Bangs said. "I didn't find a pulse."

While his partner secured the scene - described by Bangs as chaotic, with other teens running around, yelling and crying - Bangs started working on the lifeless boy.

"I did a sternum rub, opened his airway," Bangs said.

He started CPR.

Within minutes, the teen gasped, and spit fluids on Bangs, but Bangs kept working on the boy, and didn't stop until medical personnel arrived on the scene and took over.

"He had a real faint pulse when I stopped," Bangs said.

Then he washed the vomit off his hands, and continued with an investigation.

The teen was transported to Kootenai Medical Center, and survived.

"I was told the juvenile had drank an entire fifth of whiskey in about 10 minutes," Bangs said. "His friends left him for 15-20 minutes before they called, and we arrived."

When the officers arrived, other juveniles were trying to leave through the back door.

"Things could have turned out much differently," Bangs said.

It's not unusual for police to respond to calls about juveniles drinking, he said. As the weather gets warmer and school gets out, it will become a nearly daily occurrence.

Several times a year, a juvenile ends up being transported to the hospital for alcohol poisoning, he said.

"Most calls, parents are not around. They have no idea this is happening, and most are responsible parents," Bangs said.

He recommends that all parents check in with their children when their kids say they are going to be at a friend's house.

"Our officer did a very good job in saving this kid's life," said Sgt. Christie Wood, spokeswoman for the Coeur d'Alene Police Department.

Because the teen is a minor, the department could not release his name.

"But it really could have been anybody's kid," Wood said.

As for Bangs, he says he was just doing his job.

"I just did what needed to be done," he said.

Bangs has been with the Coeur d'Alene Police Department for five years, and was previously a Kootenai County Sheriff's Deputy for seven.