Inmate, Officer Team Up to Save Man Suffering From an Overdose

— -- A Massachusetts police sergeant and an inmate leaped into action together to save a man who had overdosed on heroin -- but little did they know that they both had complicated connections to drug abuse.

Sgt. Dennis Laubner had just finished supervising a work crew of minimum-security inmates along a highway Monday afternoon and were preparing to leave the site when a car pulled up. A woman rushed out of the car asking for help, saying her boyfriend was dying and that he had overdosed, Essex County Sheriff's office spokesman Maurice Pratt told ABC News.

While Laubner told 911 their exact location, the inmates worked to move the unconscious man from the car to the ground. "The inmates were wonderful," Pratt said.

Then Laubner and an inmate named Dennis Dicato worked together to administer CPR until paramedics arrived. "The inmate gave breaths and the sergeant gave sternum rubs and chest compression," Pratt said.

While paramedics worked on the overdosed man, Pratt said the inmates cheered him on and shouted his name to encourage him to wake up.

"When he came to, they were all high-fiving each other," Pratt said. "They were thrilled."

The rescue was particularly emotional because both Laubner and Dicato have personal connections to drug abuse, according to ABC's Boston affiliate WCVB.

"I lost my son a year ago, and that is a tragedy." Laubner said of losing his son to heroin. "I believe God put me there [Monday] to save a life."

"This really hit home for him," Pratt said.

Dicato told WCVB that he suffers from addiction issues himself, and could understand the suffering.

“At that time, I was not a Correctional Officer and these men were not inmates," Laubner said. "We were just human beings trying to save another human being.”