NYPD cop who 'MacGyvered' a potato chip bag and duct tape into a bandage to save stabbing victim says it was the first time he had tried the plan
The NYPD cop who is being hailed as a hero after he 'MacGyver'd' a potato chip bag and tape to save a stabbing victim's life says he had never tried unorthodox move before.
Dylan Ubiles, 28 was stabbed in the chest in south Harlem on July 7, and stumbled until he collapsed in front of a deli on Lenox Avenue.
Scared onlookers flagged down NYPD officers in the area, including Officer Ronald Kennedy, who doubles his service duty as a volunteer firefighter with EMT training.
He can be heard in bodycam footage released late last week yelling to Good Samaritan onlookers to grab potato chips and tape, which he secured over the victim's wound.
'We requested a bag of potato chips and some tape, cause we knew right away that we needed to seal the chest,' Officer Kennedy said at a Tuesday press conference, according to the New York Post.
'There was a puncture wound there … we didn’t want the air going in it, collapsing his lung,' he said.
He added: 'I was looking specifically for that size bag, squared edges and that type of material that wouldn’t allow air to pass through.'
Officer Ronald Kennedy (left) used his EMT training to save Dylan Ubiles (right) after he was stabbed
The quick-thinking cop emptied a bag of potato chips and used duct tape to seal the wound
The attending physician at Harlem Hospital told the NYPD that Kennedy's actions likely saved the man's life
Officer David Galindez, who arrested the alleged attacker Erick Rodriguez, 38, told The Post he thought it was 'crazy' to use a chip bag, but only for a 'split second.'
'I know [Kennedy] has prior EMT experience, and I knew that was going to work,' Officer Matthew Grieve, Kennedy’s partner, told The New York Post.
'It had an immediate effect,' Grieve said.
The NYPD said a Harlem Hospital physician credited Kennedy with saving man's life.
(left to right) NYPD Officers David Galindez, Ronald Kennedy and Matthew Grieve answer questions for a WABC interview about Kennedy's quick-thinking life-saving action and the team work among the three officers.
Officer David Galindez, who arrested the alleged attacker Erick Rodriguez, 38, told The Post he thought it was 'crazy' to use a chip bag, but only for a 'split second'
Ubiles was grateful for Kennedy's quick thinking and heroic actions.
'I spoke to him at the scene,' Ubiles told Daily News on Tuesday. 'He’s actually the one who caught the (suspect). He made sure I got to the hospital, he took care of me.'
In the video released by the NYPD, Kennedy is seen rushing out of the squad car and telling a bystander to ‘go get me a bag of potato chips right now.’
He then approaches the victim, who tells Kennedy that ‘he caught me in my lung.’
Kennedy can be heard reassuring Ubiles over and over again and urging him to 'stay awake.
'We got you, we got you,’ Kennedy is heard telling the victim as he tapes the empty bag of potato chips to his chest.
As it appears that the victim begins to lose consciousness, Kennedy tells him: ‘Stay with me. Stay with me.’
Another bystander is heard telling the victim: ‘Stay awake, alright?’
The video then shows other officers and first responders arriving to the scene to help Kennedy.
‘It’s the best I could do with what I had,’ Kennedy is heard telling his colleagues.
Kennedy then asks others for help in getting the victim onto a stretcher so that he could be loaded into an ambulance.
‘Keep breathing, keep breathing, boss,’ Officer Kennedy tells Ubiles.
NYPD Officer Ronald Kennedy responded to a report of a stabbing near 290 Lenox Avenue in the Harlem section of Manhattan on the night of July 7
The image above shows a New York City police officer using an empty bag of potato chips to treat a stab wound on July 7
First responders arrived afterward and placed the victim into an ambulance
Bystander Ricardo Gonzalez was the one who ran inside to get the bag of chips used to save a stabbing victim's life
Ubiles' mom Stacey Cuevas told The Daily News that her son was a heroin addict looking to buy drugs in the park when he was attacked, the second time in the last year that Ubiles survived a stabbing.
Ubiles is a father of three kids ages 8, 5 and 2, the Daily News reported.
He told the New York City paper that this is a wake up call for him.
'Look at me: Shot, stabbed, cut,' he told the Daily News. 'This is what happens when you live that lifestyle. This is not a lifestyle I want to live anymore.
'I want to get certain things from certain places, just like Justin Bieber, you know what I’m saying? "Peaches from Georgia, weed from California." ... But when you live a certain lifestyle, this is what it gets you.'
NYPD Chief of Department Rodney Harrison praised Kennedy and the two other officers' work in a tweet on Friday.
‘This is just one example of the heroic work that your NYPD officers do every day.'
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