Crime Scene

The Rockland emergency services helicopter pilot Sgt. Ken Johnston of the Sheriff’s Department had a busy weekend, helping save two lives.

On Friday, a Good Samaritan Hospital patient needed medicine for botulism, Sheriff’s Lt. Bill Barbera said today. The patient was dying. The hospital asked that a police car pick up the antidote at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, Barbera said. But the trip by car could take several hours back and forth.

So Johnston flew down to JFK, picked up the medicine and came back to Rockland, where the medicine was used to save the patient’s life, Barbera said.

“The helicopter made the trip in 25 minutes,” Barbera said. “As far as I know, the guy’s alive and his life saved.”

On Saturday, Johnston and the helicopter was called out to search for a missing 55-year-old Pearl River man, who is diabetic and was without his medicine, Barbera said.

Between 30 and 35 police officers and firefighters from the Orangetown Police Department, the Clarkstown Police Department, the Blauvelt Fire Department and the West Nyack Fire Department took part in the search, Orangetown police said.

Johnston was able to spot the man in the marsh area in Blavelt near the reservoir, Barbera said. The man was lying face down in the muck and weeds and probably would have died within a few hours, Barbera said.