ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam -- “I was driving my friends around downtown when I heard two people got into a fight,” said Staff Sgt. Best. “As one was walking away, the guy in the car had hit him and the individual flipped over the hood of the car.”
When Staff Sgt. Lorin Best, the dispatch noncommissioned officer in charge for the 36th Civil Engineer Squadron Fire Department, witnessed the individual get hit by a car, he sprang into action to keep the patient stable until local paramedics arrived.
“When I first got there, he was laying there groaning,” Best said as he remembered helping the man. “He had a cut on his head and there was blood on the ground. We were able to bandage it up but blood started to seep through so we grabbed his shirt and wrapped it around his head to control the bleeding.”
While Best was administering aid to the patient, two other bystanders started helping him and Best was able to talk to the patient’s brother and find out if he had any medical conditions until paramedics came.
Best is thankful for the training the Air Force has provided to prepare him for an emergency situation like this.
“As a fire department we are Emergency Medical Response certified and work closely with our Emergency Medical Technicians,” said Best. “We are constantly training with them and it helped me know what to do and how to control the area.”
Even though Best helped save a life, he said he doesn’t feel like he should get recognized for his actions.
“It feels good but it’s something us as firefighters are used to,” he said. “It’s something we’re supposed to do as first responders; we’re supposed to help somebody that’s in need.”