Coroner Gives Trauma Care to Injured Cyclist

Long before Connie Jacobson was appointed to and later elected in 2010 as Natrona County Coroner, she was, and is, a trauma nurse.

Thursday, that training automatically kicked in after Jacobson left a store downtown before 8 a.m., saw a crushed bicycle near First and Beech streets, and stopped her car, she said Friday.

She saw a man laying face up on the street with people gathering around him after a collision with a SUV, she said. "It just happened."

Jacobson parked her car, walked to the scene a few yards away where she saw someone performing CPR on

the man, and assisted in his resuscitation and the assessment, she said.

"I held his head head still to prevent any c-spine damage in his neck," Jacobson said. "That's just one of the first protocols that you do when you happen upon an unconscious person, especially in trauma."

When emergency medical crews and ambulance arrived, she stood up, walked to her car, and drove to the coroner's office near Cole Creek Road and the Old Glenrock Highway.

Casper police continue to investigate the collision, Detective Sgt. Richard Brown said Friday. The cyclist was taken to a hospital in Colorado for treatment.

For Jacobson, trauma care is reflexive, she said.

"It all comes back and you know just what to do, and you know what your role is in the team," Jacobson said. "I didn't even have to think twice about what to do, I just got right in there and started doing what I was trained to do and did do for many years."

"That's the nurse in me," she said. "I''ll always say, 'I'm a nurse first.'"