LRGHealthcare salutes Sgt. Al Lessard for heroism at annual EMS Appreciation Dinner

SANBORNTON — Sgt. Al Lessard of the Laconia Police Department has received a Heroism Award for his rescue last summer of a young Manchester woman from the bottom of the Winnipesaukee River. The award was presented last night at the annual LRGHealthcare EMS Appreciation Dinner held at the Steele Hill Resort.

Lessard dove to the bottom of the river five times on July 10 before recovering Ramatulia Kanu, 19, of Manchester, from an area where she had dove into the river from a railroad trestle near the Fair Street bridge.

Lessard said that he was in the Laconia police station when two of Kanu's relatives ran into the lobby shortly after 4 p.m. that Saturday. "I heard two girls in the lobby screaming to the dispatcher that their friend was drowning," he told the Laconia Daily Sun last summer.

Together with Sergeant Tom Swett, Lessard went to a railroad trestle, took of his gun belt, uniform shirt, shoes and ballistic vest and went into the river looking for the woman. Witnesses said she had been at the bottom of the river for as long as 10 minutes.

"I went in four times and found her the fifth time. There was about seven feet of water, but it was very cloudy and dark,’’ he recalled.

He said that he saw her yellow swim suit on his last dive and was able to drag her towards the shore where Swett helped him get her out of the water. He said that she had no pulse when she was brought ashore.

Swett began administering CPR and was joined by Officer Derek Gray. Kanu regained her pulse after being treated by Laconia Fire Department EMTs who arrived about a minute after she was pulled from the river.

Kanu was taken to Lakes Region General Hospital and later flown to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, where she was placed on life support and originally listed in critical condition. She has since made a full recovery and visited the Laconia Police Department in September with her mother to personally thank her rescuers.

Lessard, Swett and Gray also received a Unit Citation Award for the rescue, as did the six Laconia firefighters who responded to the incident, Lt. Kirk Beattie, Nate Lemay, Ricky Hewlett, Jay Ellingson, J.P. Hobby and Brian Keyes.

Laconia Fire Chief Ken Erickson said that all parts of the emergency medical system responded with perfect precision to save a life that day, from the quick action by the police officers first on the scene on through the efforts of the EMTs and emergency room staff at Lakes Region General Hospital, those on the DART helicopter and the staff at Dartmouth Hitchcock.

Other Unit Citations were presented to the Tilton-Northfield Fire Department for saving Geoff Blum’s life when he suffered a heart attack and was revived while being taken to Concord Hospital and to Stewart’s Ambulance for saving the life of a 52-year-old man who had a heart attack at a pond hockey tournament in Meredith in February.

The Paul Racicot Award was presented to Stewart’s Ambulance for it’s dedication to the development and implementation of the LRGHealthcare STEMI system of care, known as the REACT program.

Dr. Paul Racicot said that the REACT program, developed in cooperation with LRGHealthcare hospitals in Laconia and Franklin and Concord Regional Hospital, has increased the survival rate of heart attack victims in the area to three or four times the national rate.

Provider of the Year awards were presented to Dennis Comeau of Lakes Region General Hospital and to Scott Taylor of Franklin Regional Hospital.

Best Care Ambulance was honored as the EMS Service of the Year and Laconia Lt. Mike Shastany was presented a Lifetime Achievement award.

Lakes Region General Healthcare and the Laconia Fire Department have been partners in providing emergency medical services ever since 1997 according to Deputy Chief Shawn Riley. Under an arrangement developed with the firefighters union and LRGH which was designed to avert layoffs, LRGHealthcare pays the salaries Riley and the top four paramedics in the department.

Riley says that is a unique arrangement which helps provide for better patient care and through the education and training programs which are offered has sharply increased the survival rate of heart attack victims.