Martinsville Bulletin, Inc.
P. O. Box 3711
204 Broad Street
Martinsville, Virginia 24115
276-638-8801
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| Program lives up to its name |
Martinsville Sheriff’s Officer Mark Stroud (left) holds equipment for Project Lifesaver as he talks to Troy Davis at Davis’ Axton home on Thursday. Earlier in the week, Davis’ wife, Vera, wandered away from their home and was found through the Project Lifesaver transmitter she wore. She was down the bank behind the men, more than 100 yards from home, in a creek bed. She was not hurt, and her husband credits the program with saving her life. (Bulletin photo by Mike Wray) |
Friday, May 1, 2009
By DEBBIE HALL - Bulletin Staff Writer
The husband of an elderly Alzheimer’s patient credits a local program with saving her life.
Henry County resident Troy Davis said his wife Vera Davis, 75, has Alzheimer’s, which destroys brain cells and causes memory, thinking and behavior problems.
Davis, 77, said he awoke in the middle of the night this week and found his wife missing. He spent the next hour or so frantically searching their Axton home.
“I searched this house all over, but I couldn’t find her,” he said.
He thought about looking outside and stepped out on the porch, but “it was pitch dark,” Davis said, so he called for help.
Davis said he remained hopeful his wife would be located because he had enrolled her in Project Lifesaver, operated by the Martinsville Sheriff’s Office. Participants are fitted with a band that is placed on a wrist or ankle, said city Sheriff Steve Draper. The band has a transmitter that can be used to locate someone.
Davis said he met Martinsville Sheriff’s Officer Ed Gower when he enrolled his wife in the program, so it was only fitting that Gower was the first officer to arrive when he called for help around 4 a.m. Tuesday.
Also responding were Martinsville Sheriff’s Officer Mark Stroud — also a member of the Lifesaver team; Martinsville Police Officer Kenny Keen; and Henry County Sheriff’s deputies Tim Robertson and Thomas Frye, Draper said.
Davis said Gower took his equipment into various areas of the yard, trying to get a strong reading from Vera Davis’ transmitter to locate her.
Stroud said each transmitter is assigned a different frequency. “We start monitoring as soon as we get the call and get to our car” by activating an external antenna. In that manner, “we can pick the signal up en route,” he said.
When a signal is received from the transmitter, there is a beep, and a needle on the equipment jumps, Stroud said.
When officers arrive at a scene, they begin monitoring the last place the person was seen and work outward in one-quarter mile circles until the transmitter or person is found, Stroud said.
At the Davis house, the initial transmitter signal was picked up in the back yard, Davis said.
“We got a weak signal in back. It was stronger in the front, but the signal was still weak,” Davis said.
Gower continued walking around the property, Davis said.
“We got a reading up by the road” but were unable to see anything because it was dark and the land slopes, Davis said.
“It slopes down maybe 20 feet,” he said, adding that although his wife could not be seen, Gower said, “‘She’s down there somewhere’” and then he disappeared down the slope and into the darkness.
When Gower “came up out of that ditch, he had mud all over him ... up to his knees,” Davis said. Gower also was carrying Vera Davis.
“You can’t put into words how wonderful it makes me feel to find my wife; to see her talking,” Troy Davis said.
Draper said the woman was found about 28 minutes after searchers arrived. She had traveled more than 100 yards from her home and was found sitting in a creek bed in about 6 inches of cold water.
“She had apparently traveled down a hill and through some woods before stopping in the creek, which was noted to be 4 feet deep in some places,” according to a release from Draper.
Members of the Axton Life Saving Crew took Vera Davis to Memorial Hospital, where she was treated for exposure to the cold and released, Draper said.
Physicians said “it was quite serious ... much longer and we wouldn’t have gotten her back,” Davis said.
Without Gower, other law enforcement officers and Project Lifesaver, Davis does not think his wife would have survived.
Gower “is my hero,” Davis said. “There are a lot of bad things in this world, but there are a lot of good things, too.”
Project Lifesaver is in that category, he said.
Draper said the program originated in Chesapeake about 10 years ago and began locally in 2000.
It is open to any special needs person in the city and county, Draper said.
The program is funded by grants and donations but is free if participants are unable to donate, he said.
Currently, Gower said there are about 14 participants, and they represent an equal mix of Alzheimer’s patients and youngsters with autism.
For more information, call Gower at 656-5151 or 877-580-LIFE. |
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