UNION COUNTY, N.C. — A Union County Sheriff’s Office deputy has been honored twice this year for saving a life at Piedmont High School.
The deputy’s quick thinking, along with other school staff members, helped save the life of a high schooler, whose heart stopped during the school day, according to county officials.
“I’ll be honest with you, the whole time I was doing it, I was praying. That’s the one thing I do remember,” Deputy Christy Baucom said.
What You Need To Know
In December 2021, Deputy Christy Baucom helped save the life of a student at Piedmont High School
The student's pulse and breathing had stopped shortly after arriving on campus
Baucom and a team of others carried out life-saving chest compressions, rescue breathing and AED equipment
Baucom, who has been with the sheriff’s office since 2003 and a school resource officer for 19 years, said the fateful December day started like any other.
“I was in the courtyard, looking up this way,” Baucom said, referencing her view of the gate the student walked in at the start of the school day.
On December 8, 2021, Baucom witnessed 17-year-old Matthew Carter collapse shortly after arriving at school.
“When he fell, it was somewhere right in this area,” Baucom said, retracing her steps from the morning of the incident.
After noticing him fall, another staff member at the school radioed for the nurse as Baucom rushed from the courtyard to the gate.
“Mr. Jenkins called for the nurse, and I started running up here,” Baucom recalled.
Upon her arrival to the scene, Baucom said she and the nurse noticed Carter had no pulse and was not breathing.
The realization caused Baucom and the nurse’s training to kick in, which saved Carter’s life.
“I started chess compressions, and nurse [Tracy] Hamilton started doing rescue breathing with him,” Baucom said.
After two staff members brought an AED to Hamilton and Baucom, they were able to get Carter’s pulse back and he started breathing on his own.
EMS arrived soon afterward, transporting Carter to the hospital, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Carter recovered and came back to the school a week later to thank Baucom and the others who saved his life. Then, in January, Baucom was named a Union County Lifesaver Award recipient, and the local Crime Stoppers group named her law enforcement officer of the year, according to UCSO.
“It’s been overwhelming, very humbling, good to know that you know, law enforcement as well as your school resource officers have the support of the county,” Baucom said on a more relaxed school morning this month.
For 19 years, she’s walked the halls of schools in Union County, checking in with students and keeping an eye on the mood and safety of campuses. Now, at Piedmont High School, each school day usually starts in the courtyard.
“I like for them to see me, tell them hello. Sometimes, some of these kids just need a ‘Good morning, how are you?'” Baucom said about her approach to the job.
As she walked back to her office after the first bell, she wanted parents to know she will continue keeping an eye on their kids.
“We’ve got the kids, we’ve got their backs. We’re here to take care of them, and we’re going to do that to the best of our ability,” Baucom said.
Piedmont High School principal Dylan Stamey said in his seven years at the school, three as principal, he’s never dealt with a similar emergency, which is why he is glad the staff’s training led to quick thinking.
“As a school administrator, the only thing that you can hope for is that you’ve got the right people in place at the right times. Luckily, that morning, everything worked perfectly. Everybody that was supposed to be in that spot was designated there, and they were there. Ultimately, I think them being where they were supposed to be when they were supposed to be there, saved that young man’s life,” Stamey said.
However, Baucom insists it was a team effort, and credited Hamilton, coach Jeff Jenkins and fire academy instructor Chad Baucom for helping save Carter’s life.