Oregon Gov. Performs CPR On Woman Dying From Heroin Overdose

Governor John Kitzhaber likely saved the woman’s life.

As he was being driven to dinner in downtown Portland Monday night, Gov. Kitzhaber spotted “someone along the edge of the street who seemed to be attempting to resuscitate a woman” lying on the ground, according to an email sent to the Oregonian by Kitzhaber’s communications director, Nkenge Harmon Johnson.

Kitzhaber, a former emergency room doctor, ordered his driver to pull over and told his security team to call 911; he then “jumped from the vehicle” to help the woman, who wasn’t breathing, and performed CPR. More than two minutes later, paramedics arrived and used a defibrillator to revive the woman.

According to Lt. Rich Chatman of the Portland Fire Bureau, CPR has to be administered within six minutes of a person’s heart stopping.

By: Cheston Catalano

Cheston Catalano is a Kentucky-based journalist whose work has been featured in the Chattanooga Times Free Press and the Clarksville Leaf Chronicle. He is a long-time contributor to Liberaland.