By
Jerry Boyd
When Dr. William O'Reardon first started working in the ER
at St. Francis he had quite an attitude (negative) towards law
enforcement. When my partners and I would take an injured crook there he
seemed to try and blame us for the bad guy's injury. He seemed to think
cops were the real bad guys.
Over time, Dr. O'Reardon changed into one of the most pro-law enforcement medics I ever saw. It took a whole bunch of injured Deputies (and other area law enforcement officers) going in the the ER for treatment, some of them critical/fatal, but boy did he change his attitude.
After leaving FPK and going to Metro I caught a bullet in
ELA. A patrol deputy scooped me up and was going to take me to ELA
Doctor's Hospital. I told the just-off-training ELA Deputy that if he
thought I was hurt bad he'd better consider what shape he'd be in if he took me
anywhere but St. Francis! It is only thanks to O'Reardon in the ER, and
later a team of orthopedic surgeons, that my law enforcement career didn't end
that day. Thanks to their fine work I was able to stick around the
profession for another 25 years before pulling the plug.
O'Reardon belongs in the top cop doc hall of fame