Two OK Highway Patrol Troopers save a man's life at little league football game

CUSHING, OKLA--   Two Oklahoma Highway Patrol Officers save a man’s life while off duty at a little league football game last week in Oolagah.

  Lt. Jeff James and Trooper Tony Harper said they normally wouldn’t have been at the stadium at the time they saw the man. Lt. James said he wasn’t supposed to be at the game that day and Trooper Harper said he should have already been gone. However, they both said being at the right place at the right time is how they saved the man’s life.

 

"We're not the kind to sit back and watch, we see something that needs done, we go do it," said Oklahoma Highway Patrol Lt. Jeff James 

 

It was a normal Saturday for Lt. Jeff James and Trooper Tony Harper. Lt. James watching his daughter cheer from the stands and Harper coaching 4th grade football. But while walking out of Oolagah stadium with his son last week, Harper said he saw a man bent over, looking like he was having trouble breathing. 

 

"I stopped to check on him to see if he was okay and he informed me that he didn't need any help and just asked me to go along," said Trooper Harper.

 

So Harper and his son kept walking.

 

Trooper Tony Harper Oklahoma Highway Patrol, 21-57-22-06 "That's when my son looked back and he saw the gentleman on the ground and immediately i turned and I ran to him."

 

But someone else saw the man fall too, Lt. James.

 

"Walking out to to parking lot I saw a guy fall down and another guy with him yelled somebody call 911, so I went over there," said Lt. James.

 

Both getting to the man at the same time, the two highway patrol officers immediately began performing CPR.

 

"I looked up and I saw Jeff and I knew to myself that we got this," said Trooper Harper.

 

"We lost his pulse actually a couple of times. Tony started doing chest compressions, I kept his airway opened, and we got him back a couple of times." said Lt. James.

 

 Once the ambulance showed up and the man was breathing, Harper and James said they knew they did everything they could to keep the man alive. 

 

 "In a situation like that it doesn't matter whether I'm on duty or off duty. If there's another human being that needs help then we're going to go help that person," said James.

 

"It makes me feel great to make sure that gentleman is able to see another day, his family's able to enjoy him another day," said Harper.

 

  After posting their story on social media, the troopers learned the man is okay and out of the hospital. They said their humbled knowing the man is back with his loved ones.