Photo: CBS 12
As a South Florida law enforcement agency is getting ready to lay one if its officers to rest, prayers are ongoing for another member of the force.
West Palm Beach cop and U.S. Army combat medic Anthony Testa was flown to Cleveland, Ohio yesterday for a last-ditch effort to save his life from COVID.
"He fought for this country. He did a lot. He's been through a lot and this is the support we need to get him through this. This is what he deserves."
Janine Testa tells CBS 12 none of the ECMO life support machines were available in Florida, so her husband's fellow officers and non-profits banded together to get him a private flight to a hospital that has one.
The machine, which incorporates extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, pumps blood out of your body, oxygenates it and pumps it back in, to give your heart and lungs a break.
"At this point it's a 76 percent survival rate and I'll take it, because we're still fighting."
Deputy Chief Rick Morris says Testa has used his training in the field.
"He saved quite a few lives in the community. Last time I had contact with Officer Testa, he was actually applying a tournaquete to a gunshot victim. He saved his life."
Morris says Testa even made it his initiative to buy medical supplies that went far beyond the department's standard first-aid kits.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help support Janine Testa and the couple's 4-year old son. Janine's cousin, who set up the page, writes that Anthony's mother is also fighting for her life with the coronavirus, having been diagnosed and on a ventilator.
Meanwhile, a funeral will be held on Saturday for a 20-year veteran of the West Palm Beach Police force. 47-year old Robert Williams succumbed to COVID-19 last week.