HORRY COUNTY, SC (WBTW) – Three Horry County Corrections Officers are being hailed as heroes for saving a 27-year-old woman from drowning Saturday evening.
Sgt. Sherri Smith with Horry County Sheriff’s Office says, Corrections Officers Donnell Hargrove and Jake Thompkins were on their way to work Saturday around 5:30 p.m. when they noticed a woman who was trapped in a drainage pipe on Harris Shortcut Road in Conway. Lieutenant Scott Bower, who was off-duty, drove by and observed the two officers in the drainage ditch and stopped to assist in the rescue.
Amber Lloyd and her boyfriend had been walking down Harris Shortcut Road taking pictures of the flooding, when the boyfriend slipped and fell in the ditch. Amber, while attempting to help her boyfriend was caught in the fast moving water and was sucked underneath the roadway through a drainage pipe, explains Sgt. Smith.
Amber was under the water two to three minutes. Officers Hargrove, Thompkins and Bower aided in trying to reach Amber on the side where she went under and were unable to reach her. The officers went over to the other side of the drainage pipe to search for her thinking she may come through at the other end of the pipe along with the flowing water. The Officers located Amber partially submerged facing down in the water and pulled her out of the drainage pipe and up onto the roadside.
The Officers say Amber was bluish purple with no sign of life so they immediately began administering CPR and continued CPR until she moved her lip and eyes. Amber was then carried to the back of Lt. Bower’s pickup truck and was driven slowly to meet the ambulance and other rescue workers, which could not get directly to the scene due to other vehicles blocking the road.
Amber was transported to Conway Hospital where she received treatment and was released Tuesday, explains Sgt. Smith.
Sheriff Phillip Thompson is very happy to know Amber is doing well and he is also proud of the quick reaction and response his Officers had in helping to rescue Amber and help save her life. This display of heroism to help people in need and putting other people’s lives above their own, even when they are “off duty” shows the character of these men.
