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The following letter was written by Marlon Stratton, St George City Police Chief:
Student Resource Officer (SRO), Matt Schuman has been with Dixie Middle School since the beginning of the 2015-2016 school year. Before that he had served for 5 years on the SGPD drug task force and has been with the department for 10.
December 8th, 2015 at Dixie Middle School around 2:00pm a female student reported to her teacher that she was not feeling well in gym class. The teacher sent her with a hall pass to go rest in the front office/nurse's room and instructed the student to call her parents where she remained until they arrived.
Officer Schuman was in the office and stayed with the student to make sure she was doing ok until her parents arrived. The student exhibited flu like symptoms and was sick as they waited for her parents. After the student's father arrived he spoke with administration and Officer Schuman and, while they were talking, she collapsed to her knees. After resting for a moment her father said he was going to take her to Instacare for treatment. Officer Schuman felt her symptoms were not consistent with the flu and worried something more serious was wrong so he checked the student's vitals. He felt an ambulance was necessary at that time and fortunately her parents agreed. It was at this time, as the student's father putting her belongings in his truck, the student collapsed and was caught by Ofc. Schuman before hitting the ground. She started to seize and went into cardiac arrest, losing pulse and breathing. Without hesitation Officer Shuman and a local parent (Denim Lyman, at DMS for an unrelated reason) began CPR on the student. Officer Shuman continued CPR for 2 minutes and revived the student. Within a few moments of being resuscitated the student again went into cardiac arrest. Officer Schuman performed CPR until the EMT services arrived on scene.
Medical services used a defibrillator twice upon the student to obtain a regular pulse. She was rushed to the local DRMC and eventually transferred via LifeFlight to a hospital in Las Vegas.
On that same day while Officer Shuman was heading home after work and he overheard on his police scanner a 911 dispatch call about a 9-day-old infant choking. Being the closest officer in the area (only three houses away) he proceeded to the location and began working to remove the obstruction in the child’s airway. He was successful in saving this child’s life as EMTs arrived and continued care.
