The New Iberia Police Department honored seven of their own for two life-saving events at a ceremony on Thursday.

When Basketball referee Kevin Domingue suffered a cardiac episode at West St. Mary High School, NIPD sergeants Daesha Hughes and Craig Lewis quickly sprang into action.

“We were refereeing a basketball game at West St. Mary High School and I collapsed on the court, hitting my head and going into cardiac arrest,” Domingue said of the incident. “The officers that were there did chest compressions on me for approximately 28 minutes, I’m told, and then the ambulance brought me to the hospital and I was then airlifted to Terrebonne General.”

Domingue said that he is recovering well from the Jan. 19 event, even planning his return to the court in the future.

“The recovery has been good, I’m on a lot of different medicines to make sure that I don’t retain fluid and I’m on a new diet,” he said. “I now have a defibrillator and pacemaker implanted and I’ve been cleared to start walking again. Hopefully next year I’ll be able to resume refereeing.”

Sgt. Craig Lewis, who was working alongside Domingue as an official, was present to receive his award on Thursday. Sgt. Daesha Hughes, who was a spectator at the game, was unable to attend the event. Her award was accepted on her behalf by Capt. Leland Laseter.

Also being honored were three NIPD officers and two communications officers who made a heroic intervention during a house fire on Lombard Street earlier this week. NIPD Sgt. Jacob Richard, Officer Marek Mason, Officer Evan Dowling, Communications Officer Jade Hartweck and Communications Officer Lyrical Robicheaux all played a pivotal role in locating, extracting and stabilizing the victim, who is now listed as in stable condition.

“We were by the Hopkins One Stop doing paperwork and monitoring traffic and we saw two guys hollering to each other in the street,” explained Officer Mason. “They flagged us down and said that there was a house on fire, so we immediately left where we were at and started seeing smoke coming out of the house where we were told there was a female inside.”

With other emergency services still several minutes away, Officers Mason and Dowling knew they had to be the ones to enter the building.

“We ran to the front door because it was already open. When we began crawling inside, the smoke was so heavy and thick that we thought the fire was in the front of the house,” he said. “We went around to the back and felt that the door was warm. When I pushed it open smoke began pouring out so I got down and began low crawling through the house. You could barely see anything in front of you.”

With no ventilation system, Officer Mason knew he would be risking his health every second he was in the house and breathing in the toxic smoke. After crawling on his hands and knees, he finally located the woman and began to extract her from the house.

“I started trying to talk to her and pulling her towards me,” he said. “When we got to the back porch, I could tell that she was having labored breathing and she was unresponsive. Sgt. (Jacob) Richard told me that he was about to pull up, and since he has all of the medical supplies, my goal was to get her to him as quickly as possible.”

Officer Mason carried the woman to the front of the house, where Sgt. Richard, a certified tactical medicine instructor, was waiting with his equipment to begin advanced lifesaving measures.

With the victim’s status deteriorating quickly, Sgt. Richard made the decision to deliver her to Iberia Medical Center directly instead of waiting for other emergency services.

“It was a matter of preserving life,” Officer Mason said. “Acadian Ambulance isn’t like us, they can’t be around everywhere and they’re stretched thin just like we are. (Sgt. Richard) made the call, a damned good call, and he got in the back to be with her and instructed me to drive. I did what I do best and drove fast.”

With Mason quickly winding his way through New Iberia, Sgt. Richard continued working to stabilize the victim in the back of the patrol car. By the time the unit arrived at the emergency room, all three officers had performed police, fire and medical duties to keep the victim alive.

Sgt Richard commended Officer Mason for his ability to put his training to use to save a life.

“All of the SWAT guys are certified in MedEvac, which usually takes place in more intense situations like gunshots. He drove the vehicle exactly like it needed to be driven and got us all there safely.”

When the story was reported by The Daily Iberian and the New Iberia Police Department’s Facebook page, the support from the community came quickly. While the act was indeed heroic, Sgt. Richard said they were all just doing what they were trained to do.

“We don’t want to be called heroes, we were just doing our jobs,” he said. “At the end of the day, to watch all of this training come together and everything pan out, it’s phenomenal.”

Officer Mason echoed a similar sentiment, adding that the department and the city provide officers with ample opportunities to train, allowing him to act instead of hesitate.

“At that point, there’s no time to assess, it’s just do,” explained Mason. “Hesitation costs people seconds and lives, it’s what gets people killed. It was just about preserving life, that was the end goal.”