GROSSE POINTE FARMS, Mich. (WXYZ) — A Grosse Pointe Farms sanitation worker is alive after two co-workers and a police officer acted quickly to stop life-threatening bleeding from a broken piece of glass.
See the full story from Grosse Pointe Farms reporter Peter Maxwell in the video below
Rick Braun was on the job last Friday when a shard of glass hidden inside a resident's black plastic bag cut deep into his right arm.
"It was a very small cut, but it was a poke up," Braun said.
What initially seemed minor quickly became a crisis. Braun felt a warm sensation on his arm and realized he was bleeding heavily.
"I threw the piece of glass and then I thought oh that hurt but not bad. That was weird and then I went to do something else and I felt the warm sensation of blood on the outside of my arm," Braun said.
Co-worker Maxwell Roeski spotted Braun from their sanitation truck and immediately recognized something was wrong.
"All of a sudden, his arm goes up and his hand goes on it, and he starts moving towards me and saying 'hey,'" Roeski said.
Roeski jumped out of the truck and took action.
"At that point kind of just went into reaction mode," Roeski said.
"I stripped off my shirt wrapped it around his arm and started just twisting trying to just get pressure on it," Roeski said.
A minute later, co-worker Scott Foster arrived and escalated the response.
"Grabbed that belt off of him snatched it off of him and put it on top because the amount of blood I knew we had to act quick," Foster said.
Braun said he was grateful for his colleagues' immediate response.
"I had two amazing guys right there ready to help me do whatever it took," Braun said.
Roeski called 911. Grosse Pointe Farms Public Safety Officer Paul Lyke, who has been on the force for just one year, was the first to arrive on scene.
"I said to myself what would I do if this was my father," Lyke said.
Lyke quickly assessed the severity of the wound.
"When I looked at the injury I noticed a very deep laceration right here to his brachial artery," Lyke said.
With an ambulance 8 minutes away, Lyke applied a tourniquet and made a critical decision.
"I am like 8 minutes is way too much time to wait. We need to get him there now. So I packed him up in my car and we took him up to St. Johns and he got his medical treatment right away," Lyke said.
On Friday, Braun had the chance to meet and thank Officer Lyke in person for helping save his life.
For Braun, what his co-workers and the officer did goes far beyond simply following their training.
"They saved me. Saved me. Saved me. Saved me," Braun said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
