ATTLEBORO, Mass. – It’s not every day a police officer gets a chance to save a life.
But when Susan Boisse jumped into action recently, not only did she help save a life.
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The life she helped save was her mother’s.
“If she didn’t come to my house, I’d be dead,” said Boisse’s mother, 78-year-old Sue Godin.
Godin, who is diabetic and insulin dependent, was recovering recently at the Life Care Center in Attleboro after suffering a seizure Feb. 24 at her home and spending several days on life support in the hospital.
Boisse, a city police officer for 27 years, went to check on her mother after spending the previous night monitoring her blood-sugar level because it was unstable.
“I called, and she didn’t answer. I figured maybe she was doing laundry. I called again, and still no answer,” said Boisse, who was off-duty at the time.
When she arrived, she found her mother unconscious, stuck between the bed and wall.
Boisse and her husband moved the bed to reach Godin, then Boisse’s training kicked in and she went to work.
“Her face was ashen. I couldn’t get a pulse,” Boisse recalled.
Boisse began performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation, doing chest compressions and blowing air into her mother’s lungs.
Boisse finally detected her mother’s pulse when rescue workers arrived and took over.
Godin, who weighs about 80 pounds, suffered three cracked ribs from the ordeal and is recovering.
Boisse said she and her husband had been at her mother’s house the night before, and stayed until about 2 a.m. because her blood-sugar level was unstable.
Boisse went home after her mother’s blood-sugar level stabilized, but called the next morning to check on her.
Boisse had performed CPR on a man several years ago, but hadn’t had to perform it in an emergency again until her mother’s episode.
Ironically, Boisse said, she has to renew her CPR certification a week after saving her mother.
“I can tell them I’m all set. I got a save,” Boisse said before her renewal was due.
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