EXEMPLARY PERFORMANCE AWARD
Darren Mills
Special Officer, Orange County Sheriff’s Department
In the early evening of June 15, 2010, Sheriff’s Special Officer (SSO) Darren Mills got off work from Police Services at John Wayne Airport and drove to Rush Park in Rossmoor for a Boy Scouts event. As he was walking into the event, he unexpectedly found himself in an intense lifesaving situation involving a 3-year-old choking victim.
Just after arriving at the park, SSO Mills heard a man yelling for help and saw the man kneeling next to his little boy, frantically screaming for assistance. SSO Mills immediately ran over and assessed the situation. The man’s son was standing with his eyes wide open but could not breathe. SSO Mills quickly scooped the boy into his arms and opened his mouth, looking for an obstruction. Not seeing anything, SSO Mills turned the boy over and administered back thrusts while instructing bystanders to call 911.
After giving a series of back thrusts, SSO Mills turned the boy over and did a quick reassessment. The boy’s eyes were now closed and his face was turning blue. The father started to panic and tried to conduct a finger sweep of the boy’s mouth. With the tension mounting and the real possibility of the boy dying, SSO Mills had to calm the man down and explain that attempting to dislodge an unseen object could push the object farther down the boy’s throat. If this happened, the boy would almost certainly choke to death.
SSO Mills calmed the man down and resumed first aid. Despite the highly charged, emotional distractions, SSO Mills displayed remarkable calm and incredible efficiency as he switched over to stomach thrusts in an attempt to dislodge the foreign substance. He saw a thick, paste-like fluid coming from the boy’s mouth and reassessed the young victim. The boy had a pulse but was still not breathing. He decided to begin rescue breathing in an attempt to get oxygen into the little boy’s lungs. Moments later, the boy began to take short, restricted breaths on his own.
Paramedics arrived and transported the boy to the hospital, where he made a full recovery.
SSO Mills’ extraordinary actions conducting effective first aid under extremely difficult circumstances saved the 3-year-old boy’s life.
