Timothy Sweeney and his wife had just stopped to pick up a blueberry pie for his grandma when he saw a man lying nearby in the middle of the street.
It was only when Sweeney reached the man on that West Town street June 30 that he realized how grave the situation was: An artery had been cut, and a shinbone poked through the skin.
The 28-year-old police recruit had just recently learned how to apply a tourniquet, he explained to reporters Friday at the Chicago Police Academy. But he was off duty at the time and didn’t have the kit with him, he said.
“One gentleman gave me his belt,” Sweeney explained. “I applied the belt and got it as tight as I could.”
Chicago police brass recognized Sweeney’s quick thinking and professionalism during a brief ceremony Friday. Sweeney is just weeks away from graduating from the academy.
Sweeney said he and his wife had stopped off at Hoosier Mama Pie Co. on West Chicago Avenue when he saw a small crowd gathered around the man in the street. The man had been hit by a minivan, Sweeney said.
Sweeney said his training, not nerves, took over.
“We train doing it in the dark,” Sweeney said. “You could do it with your eyes closed; that’s what [the academy wants] of their students.”
The victim, apparently unaware of the peril facing him, kept asking about a missing cellphone, Sweeney said.
“I was like, ‘Dude, you’ve got bigger things to worry about than your cellphone,’” Sweeney recalled. “Adrenaline is a great thing. He didn’t know what his leg looked like at the time, didn’t feel the pain.”
Sweeney, who was a part-time paramedic-firefighter with the Chicago Fire Department before entering the academy, saved the 54-year-old man’s life.
“Last time I checked, an investigator told me they were trying to re-attach the leg,” Sweeney said. “I’m not 100 percent sure if they were actually able to, but he’s alive.”
The man was taken to Stroger Hospital, a Chicago police spokeswoman said.
The woman driving the minivan was issued citations for failure to reduce speed and for failing to show due care of a pedestrian in the road way, police said.
The soon-to-be police officer made it to his grandma’s house.
“We finally got our pie — me and the wife — for grandma,” Sweeney said.
