Kids & Family

Montgomery County Honors 'Everyday Heroes'

Fire Chief: "You don't need special powers to be an everyday hero."

It was in the midst of last summer’s derecho, and Walter Lopez was driving back to the Montgomery County police station in Bethesda when he came across a large tree  toppled in the roadway.

Lopez, a county employee on call for the Department of General Services, stopped to investigate. Amid flying debris, strong winds and driving rain, he saw that a vehicle was pinned and heard a faint “help me.”

On July 23, Ensign John Hunt and 2nd Lt. Wells Weymouth, two medical students at National Naval Medical Center, were having lunch at Sam’s Club in Gaithersburg when a car barreled into the front of the building and into the food court. An elderly bystander was injured severely.

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In March 2012 at Montgomery College’s Rockville campus, security officers Yasmel Rodriguez and Jeff Wilson were the first to arrive to a classroom, where a student was unconscious.

On Tuesday, Montgomery County officials honored these “everyday” people whose actions helped saved the live of others.

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“You don't need special powers to be an everyday hero,” said Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Cheif Steve Lohr during the ceremony.

Sometimes the chance to be a hero arises during lunchtime—or in the classroom, or in the midst of a storm.

Lopez helped stopped the woman’s bleeding by forming a make-shift compress for her head, drove her to the hospital—carrying her in his hands. Hunt and Weymouth used their clothing belts to fashion a tourniquet for the elderly man struck by the car, relying on what they learned in school to keep him calm and alive. Rodriguez and Wilson administered CPR on the unconscious student, drawing on their training.

Montgomery County Executive Isiah Legget said that even when you’re well-trained, evoking those skills in a time of crisis is easier said than done.

“For you to react in a positive way,” Leggett said to the honorees, “to respond to help to save a life under difficult circumstances where you're not simply ... Monday morning quarterbacking is a really good trait and a characteristic we should admire and congratulate.”


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