Two Iowa City Police Department officers were awarded the Life Saving Commendation for their efforts in response to a stabbing call.

According to an ICPD press release, ICPD field training officer Daniel Boesen and his trainee officer Ivan Rossi responded to a stabbing call on Aug. 14 where they found the victim on the 700 block of Kirkwood Ave.

The victim was losing consciousness after excessive blood loss from a deep cut to the arm following a machete attack.

Upon seeing the severity of the situation, Boesen said his immediate thoughts were to administer aid to the victim and establish security at the scene.

“I was able to fall back on my training and prior experiences I’ve had to respond to similar calls like this [a few times] in my career,” Boesen said.

Rossi said he had to be focused to assist and he did so by making sure the victim knew the officers were there to help.

“I think that in those moments you need to focus on the victim and make sure that they feel safe at all times,” Rossi said. “Even when they think their life may be at risk, you have to give them that reassurance that you are going to be there for them, and you are going to do whatever it takes to make sure that they are able to get the care and assistance that they need.”

Upon arriving at the scene, Boesen said he noticed the victim was in a lot of pain.

“I could see the laceration once they lifted up an improvised bandage they had, and I saw the severity of it and the amount of blood he had already lost and was actively losing,” Boesen said. “[I] determined [the] best chance of keeping him alive until we can get him to an ambulance or a hospital is to apply a tourniquet to cut off that blood to that extremity.”

Boesen directed Rossi to apply a tourniquet before they carried the victim to an ambulance. The victim underwent immediate surgery and survived.

The officers were awarded the department’s Life Saving Commendation in a ceremony last month. An officer must be involved in a rescue or attempt to rescue a person from medical emergency, trauma, or other life-threatening peril in an exemplary and unique situation to receive the award.

“When you hear someone using a tourniquet, you know that’s a serious situation, so that certainly piqued my interest,” Police Chief Dustin Liston said. “We watched the video, and it’s very clear you have a clear act of rendering medical aid that likely saved this person’s life.”

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Liston said the actions of Boesen and Rossi are a unique example that reflect the ICPD’s wider efforts in serving Iowa City.

“Our mission statement refers to protecting with courage and compassion, and this is just a concrete example of that,” Liston said. “The courage of going into an unsafe scene and the compassion they both showed by constantly reassuring this person and staying with the person until they were asked to leave.”

Although Boesen and Rossi are grateful for the award, they both agreed they are surrounded by such efforts that could equally deserve the recognition.

“I feel honored and recognized,” Boesen said, “But I am cognizant of the fact that while Officer Rossi and I have been recognized for our individual efforts, these individual efforts wouldn’t be worth recognizing if it wasn’t for the collective effort of everybody who responded to this incident.”