EXPLORE MORE:

Blairstown Officers Save Life in Twist of Fate

October 31, 2025

Blairstown police — Two Blairstown Police officers are credited with saving the life of a local man with a severely lacerated arm. Photo by Joe Phalon.

A veteran police officer and a rookie with less than month on the job are credited with saving the life of a Blairstown man who had a severe wound on his arm.

On Oct. 22, Sgt. Jonathan Bee and Officer Orlando Lisboa were dispatched to a home on Walnut Valley Road for a report of a man with a lacerated arm. They found the victim, who had been using a hunting knife as a box cutter, bleeding profusely having already lost a significant amount of blood.

Bee and Lisboa applied a tourniquet to the man’s arm and were able to control the bleeding.

The victim was transported to the hospital where emergency room staff said the quick actions of Bee and Lisboa saved his life.

Bee is a veteran of more than 10 years with the Blairstown Police Department while Lisboa was sworn in as an officer less than four weeks before this incident.

Medical experts advise that tourniquets should be used cautiously. The Cleveland Clinic offers instructions for appropriate and effective use of tourniquets.

“When life-threatening bleeding happens, one way to stop it is to cut off circulation to the affected body part,” according to the Cleveland Clinic. “Tourniquets are a way to do that if the bleeding is happening on an arm or leg. But despite what you see on TV or in movies, using tourniquets isn’t common. And knowing how and when to use—or not use—them can be just as lifesaving.”

Joe Phalon, Contributing Writer

Contributing Writer

Joe brings decades of journalism experience to the Ridge View Echo, covering everything from local school boards to the U.S. Supreme Court. A former National Law Journal editor and Columbia Law School press officer, he now enjoys telling community stories in Blairstown, where he lives with his wife, Rose, and their two dachshunds.