Twinsburg Police officer performs life-saving CPR twice in 1 shift

Twinsburg Police officer performs life-saving CPR twice in 1 shift
It is never just another day at the office for any police officer and that was certainly the case, and then some, for Twinsburg officer Olivia Bartulovic.

She recently performed CPR twice in one shift, saving a couple lives in the process.

Bartulovic was first called to a Twinsburg business for an unresponsive man and began CPR until Twinsburg EMS arrived and transported the patient to an emergency room.

“I still had about 10 more hours left in my shift so I had to keep going, you put a smile on your face and just hope for the best,” she said.

A few hours into her shift, she felt a sense of relief when she heard from someone with Twinsburg EMS that the patient was stable.

But, she very quickly was put in another life saving situation.

Bartulovic was again first on the scene, another unresponsive man, and this call from the man’s wife included the news that the man was turning blue.

Relying on her training in yet another stressful situation, Bartulovic began CPR.

“He was actually talking in the ambulance before they go to the hospital,” she said quickly noting that she was not willing to take all or even much of the credit stating that fellow officers and Twinsburg Fire were critical in saving both lives.

Bartulovic had another surprise waiting as she tried to calm the wife of the second man she helped save.

Bartulovic grew up in Twinsburg, and attended the city schools.

“She said you were my student in seventh grade, I was your school nurse, so it’s just crazy to circle back around and she recognizes me at 25 years old as a police officer,” she said.

That Twinsburg connection runs deep, Bartulovic was just 11 years old in 2008 when Twinsburg officer Josh Miktarian was shot and killed, murdered while on the job.

“When something like that happens in the town you grew up in to see how it affected the community, it just really stuck with me, so ever since 2008, when he was killed I decided I was going to be a police officer and I am going to finish what he didn’t get too,” she said.

She followed through and now serving her community and when needed, saving lives.

“It was sort of after my shift I realized, ‘Wow, I did CPR on two people in one day, I’ve never done that before,’” she said.