RIPON — A Mule Creek correctional officer and a nursing student were cited by Ripon Police Chief Ed Ormonde at the Tuesday night Ripon City Council meeting for their life-saving actions in two separate incidents.

Jorge Dominguez made the difference in life and death for a woman in early September as he kept her from being run over in the parking lot of Love’s truck stop.

In the second incident Guadalupe Gomez ran to help a drowning child who had been plucked from the pool of an apartment complex.  She performed CPR until police arrived on the scene, according to Sgt. Tim Bailey.

Dominguez had stopped at the truck stop to fill up his gas tank when he noticed a woman walking across the parking lot talking on her cell phone and unaware of her surroundings.

The correctional officer said he also saw a large white pickup truck driving slowly through the parking lot and headed for the gas pumps, not seeing the pedestrian walking into the path of his vehicle.

As the vehicle struck the woman, the driver continued to drive forward dragging the woman along the asphalt, he told police.  As the woman attempted to free herself from the front of the pickup, Dominguez ran toward the truck waving his arms and yelling at the driver.

The citation read that the woman lay on the ground in front of the vehicle’s left front tire, just inches from running over her body.  The victim was transported by ambulance to a local hospital where she was treated for scrapes and bruises, Bailey said.

“Jorge is commended for his quick and heroic actions in saving the female from further injury or possible death,” according to Ormonde in the citation.

On June 16, Gomez was outside her home speaking with the property manager of the apartment complex while others were frolicking in the swimming pool.  Manager Mark Keson noticed a commotion in the pool area and called out for someone to call 9-1-1.

According to her citation, Guadalupe ran over to the pool where she saw a small child being taken out of the water.  As she got to the child, she could see that his eyes were dilated and fixed.  He had foam coming out of his mouth and he was not breathing, Bailey recalled.

The report states that Guadalupe cleared the foam out of the child’s mouth and began using her training by administering CPR that she learned as a bus driver.  She continued giving breaths and using chest compressions while another person was attempting to push the child’s in an upward position toward his chest to get the water out of his lungs.

Guadalupe said she thought the child had been in the water without oxygen for a substantial amount of time.  She continued the CPR until emergency personnel arrived on the scene and she turned the lifesaving efforts over to a Ripon officer.  She could then see that the child was taking his first big breath and water was coming out of his mouth and nose.

A short time later the boy began to cry confirming that he was breathing at last.  The child was then transported to a hospital in Modesto for further treatment and observation.

Guadalupe is the mother of two children and has been attending classes at Modesto Junior College for the last four years.  She has just been accepted into the lottery for the nursing program at MJC and hopes to be on her way toward a medical career soon. 

The child was visiting relatives at the time of the incident and has returned to Mexico with his family and is reportedly doing fine today.

Ormonde said in the citation: “Guadalupe is to be commended for her quick thinking and her actions in saving the life of this little boy.”

The Ripon woman has eight sisters in her family.