Alabama beat LSU 20-13 on the field last Saturday, but both schools won after the game when Alabama team doctors saved the life of an LSU police officer outside the stadium.
The doctors -- Lyle Cain, Norman Waldrop and Benton Emblom -- were part of the team's motorcade leaving Tiger Stadium and saw an LSU campus police officer struck by a car while escorting the motorcade on his motorcycle. According to Waldrop, while the doctors did not see the accident, they knew he'd been hurt badly when they arrived at the scene.
"Our first thought goes from, 'Wow, we just won a huge game,' to 'Wow, we need to try to save this person's life,'" Waldrop told AL.com.
"When we got to him, he was unresponsive and unconscious, had multiple broken bones and you don't know what's going on internally. We knew it was life threatening and we knew there was a chance he could die right there in the road and so we needed to do whatever we could to maximize the chance that we could keep him alive."
Waldrop also said that he's not used to trauma situations, but Dr. Cain took the lead and the three doctors, along with the help of the police and others fell back on their training to help stabilize the injured officer until an ambulance arrived.
LSU Police Department spokesman Capt. Cory LaLande confirmed to AL.com that the injured officer was 33-year old Christopher Gresham, an eight-year veteran of the department. LaLande also confirmed that Gresham remains hospitalized in stable condition, though did not give details pertaining to the extent of Gresham's injuries.
He did thank the Alabama doctors for their help on the behalf of the department.
"On behalf of the LSU Police Department, I want to express our gratitude to the doctors who attended to Sgt. Gresham at the scene of the traffic crash until EMS personnel could arrive. We sincerely appreciate their efforts."
Photo courtesy of Dr. Benton Emblom via AL.com
