“We got an unusual call. It was a pig attack,” said Saratoga County Sheriff’s Sergeant Chris Kyne.

“It was strange,” said Deputy Jakob McCasland. “The call was ‘bleeding uncontrolled, a pig attack.’ And when you hear bleeding uncontrolled, it kind of heightens things up with what’s going on.”

“We asked questions while we were en route,” said Kyne. “We asked where the animal was. They said it was penned up and we asked for clarification what the animal was and they said it was a pig. One of the things in 16 years I’ve never been to.”

They rushed to Louden Road in Wilton earlier this month. A woman had been gored by a tusk. She was in a pool of blood and still bleeding heavily.

“I saw a woman leaning up against a car holding on to a belt strap that she had around her leg,” said Sergeant Kyne. “I went over and looked at it and noticed she had a big hole in her calf and then immediately applied a tourniquet.”

“I saw the sarge down on one knee putting a tourniquet on the victim. I walked up there and I saw a large gash on her inner thigh area and her calf. I noticed a lot of blood,” said Deputy McCasland.

“Two tourniquets are better than one. Sarge had one on. I said sarge, I’m going to go get another one and he yelled to me and was like do you have quick clot.”

They stuffed the wound with quick clot, or combat gauze, using two rolls– about eight feet of it.

“As I was administering combat gauze to her leg, he was applying a second tourniquet to her leg,” said Sergeant Kyne. “And the bleeding was still uncontrolled.”

The woman ended up with three tourniquets on her leg.

Tourniquets are part of their everyday equipment and training.

Kyne was also trained in the military.

“We were advised by Albany Med who contacted Wilton EMS and said that if we didn’t do what we did, she would have bled out,” he said.

“I like to think anybody in our department, we all have the same mindset of doing everything we can to save a life,” said McCasland. “I think I was just in the right place at the right time to help how I could.”

Their quick thinking, fast work, and training all combined to save a life.