Celina officer saves elderly woman after fall

CELINA - An 82-year-old Celina woman says she is thankful for the quick action of a police officer Tuesday night she believes may have saved her life.

Celina Police Sgt. Kent Taylor was on foot patrol checking homes in the 1000 block of Princeton Avenue when he saw something moving about two houses away.

"I knew it wasn't right, and as I got closer, I noticed it was a woman lying on the ground," Taylor said.

Betty McGillvary was lying on the ice with no shoes or gloves and struggling to get to her back door.

"It was so cold and icy out there," Taylor said. "She told me her shoulder was really hurting and she couldn't get up. My first objective was to get her in the house, safe and warm."

McGillvary said she would have been in grave danger if it hadn't been for Taylor.

"If it hadn't been for him, I don't know what would have happened to me," McGillvary told The Daily Standard Friday morning. "He saved me, that's for sure."

She had gone outside to get the leash for her dog, she said. She knew ice was outside her back door but thought she could get around it.

"But I slipped on some black ice and tried to catch myself, but I just kept falling faster and faster," McGillvary said. "Then my shoulder was hurting so bad, I couldn't get up."

She had been outside for at least a half hour, McGillvary said.

"I tried calling for help but no one heard me," McGillvary said. "I was so cold and scared. I had on my pajamas and a coat and earmuffs, but it was really, really cold."

McGillvary tried to scoot to her back door but said each movement was "extremely painful."

"Not to mention that it was really cold," McGillvary said. Tuesday's low temperature was 8 degrees.

Taylor said McGillvary's backyard is pretty isolated so he's not sure when someone else would have found her.

"I was just in the right place at the right time," Taylor said. "That was a pretty scary situation for her to be in."

McGillvary was transported to Van Wert County Hospital, where she was treated for a broken arm.

"I just want to thank him so much," McGillvary said. "He even stopped by the other evening to see how I was. It was a blessing that he came by."
  Police chief Tom Wale said if Taylor hadn't been paying attention and "just had tunnel vision, we have no idea of when this lady would have been found."

"Maybe not until the next morning. The temperatures were below freezing, and she could have suffered a lot more then a bump on the head and a broken arm if not for Kent," Wale said.

Wale said he commends Taylor for a "job well done and saving the life of one of our citizens."