Sullivan County officials are commending the quick-thinking actions of two paramedics who helped a seriously injured detective last week without an ambulance.

Sheriff Mike Schiff and Public Safety Commissioner Scott Schulte spoke Thursday during a legislative hearing and said Empress paramedics Evan Bizjack and Carl Vazquez applied a tourniquet to Detective Ryan Fridlich’s arm on Friday after a flashbang went off in his hand during a search warrant in Liberty.

Officials say that an EMT on standby, with an ambulance assigned to the operation, didn’t respond to their repeated calls for help during a four-minute period.

They said Bizjack instead went with Fridlich in a police car to Garnet Hospital in Middletown while Vazquez stayed with the other officers on scene until the tactical operation was done.

“He needed care, so he did not go into shock. The other member knew there was also an operation in progress, and he didn’t leave those other officers hanging,” said Schiff. “He stayed there in case anything else catastrophic occurred so, I just wanted to thank everyone for that professionalism.”

Officials say the paramedics are facing scrutiny by their employer and the public for transporting a patient in a vehicle other than an ambulance, which they say is required by the health department.

“There’s a lot of negative comments on social media disparaging these paramedics because one of them went to the hospital, rather than waiting for an ambulance,” said Schulte. “I want to make it clear from the division of public safety, that these paramedics were heroes. They did what needed to be done for another hero. They saved a life and are heroes.”

Officials say the paramedics will be formally honored later and that an investigation is underway after the Empress EMT stationed with the ambulance nearby was found sleeping.

Empress denies the emergency medical technician was asleep and calls the allegation “rumors” and “unsubstantiated claims.”