Quick acting York County deputies prevent pregnant woman from hanging herself

Fast action by York County deputies may have saved not just one life but two Sunday morning after officers found a pregnant woman in Rock Hill on a ladder with a chain around her neck.

In the incident on Holland Road around 8:30 Sunday morning, deputies were told the woman, seven months pregnant, was attempting to commit suicide by hanging herself from a tree with a belt, according to a York County Sheriff’s Office report.

The woman was not successful with the belt so she went back into the home and then took a dog chain outside to try again, the report states. Deputies arrived and found her on a ladder with the chain around her neck, trying to hook the chain around a large tree limb.

A deputy ran to the ladder and grabbed the woman around her legs as the woman tried to kick the ladder free, despite pleas from the officer for her to stop.

A second deputy rushed up and helped the first officer in holding up the woman on the ladder and keeping the ladder from falling away as the first deputy called on his radio for more assistance, according to the report.

EMS workers and Bethesda firefighters arrived as the deputies were able to help the woman off the ladder. The deputies then followed the ambulance to Piedmont Medical center, where they officers were told that that woman and the baby “appeared to be ok.”

The woman was kept at the hospital.

September is National Suicide Prevention Month.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 provides free and confidential emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

This story was originally published September 21, 2015 at 2:51 PM with the headline "Quick acting York County deputies prevent pregnant woman from hanging herself."