Six deputies from the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office are being hailed as heroes for their efforts in providing lifesaving care to their supervisor who experienced a medical emergency last month.
Hamilton County Sheriff Chief Deputy Maj. John Lowes said the patrol division Nights B Squad was having a roll call meeting when Lt. Brian Niec, who collapsed and went into cardiac arrest just before 1 a.m. May 4, was provided lifesaving care by deputies Tyler Abbitt, Eddie Hansen, Daniel Wallace, Ryan McClain, Skyler Moe and Jared Wilcox. They used CPR and an AED device to save Niec’s life while colleagues radioed dispatch and continued to monitor Niec’s condition until the Noblesville Fire Department arrived, Lowes said.
“These deputies relied on their training and provided effective lifesaving care during an extremely stressful incident,” Lowes said.
Abbitt, Hansen, Wallace, McClain, Moe and Wilcox all received lifesaving awards from the department during a brief surprise ceremony, where Niec thanked his colleagues for their efforts.
“None of you guys knew why you were coming here,” Niec said.
Niec, 42, said “it means the world” to him that his fellow colleagues stepped up to save his life. Niec, however, said the action of the deputies was no different than what a police officer does on a normal basis.
“The fact that they’re getting some recognition is great, but let’s not go unnoticed that there’s police officers doing great things every single day, day in and day out,” Niec said.
McClain, a sergeant at the sheriff’s office, said Niec was discussing shift information with his employees when he suddenly collapsed on the floor in front of them and went into cardiac arrest.
“Our training and experience told us that he needed some sort of airway as well as CPR and an AED,” McClain said. “We jumped into action.”
McClain said Niec was originally supposed to be somewhere else at the time of the incident, but said their original planned meeting kept getting pushed back due to the number of calls that were coming in.
“It allowed us all to be together and save him,” McClain said.
McClain, who has been with the department since 2016, said in many cases, deputies provide lifesaving care in the field as part of their job and often never see the person they saved afterward.
“We hope that our actions did some good and the efforts we put in that night is something I’ll never be able to put into words,” McClain said.
McClain said many fellow employees who work the same shift share a sense of camaraderie, noting that he and Niec both have young children at home.
“We’re very blessed to be here,” McClain said.
Lowes said the incident involving Niec was a difficult moment for him. Lowes was out of town when it happened, and said he was relieved that the deputies stepped up to help by relying on their experience and training.
“They do it every day, but when it’s one of your own, it does get personal and it does bring some emotions, but I’m really proud that they were able to do what they needed to do to save his life,” Lowes said.
Niec, who has been with the sheriff’s office for 20 years, added that “everyone was in the right place at the right time” at the time of the incident. He expressed his gratitude for the six deputies and their efforts to save his life.
“I love them and appreciate them, and I try to convey it every single time I talk to them,” Niec said. “I’m not surprised, and I work with the best guys on my squad, they’re all-stars. They would do the same thing for anybody as they did for me. And the fact that it happened at the time when it happened is you can look at it one of two ways: Either a thousand things had to go right in order for me to be there or there’s one God who put us there in the right place at the right time.”
