Jaclyn Place, 30, was doing homework in her Oceanside home late one night last November when she heard screams coming from her neighbor’s house.
“The volume was escalating,” Place said. “That’s when I decided to go outside and noticed [my neighbor] was calling for me. As soon as I opened the door I saw her -- then a flash-- it was him running. She was screaming ‘he stabbed me,’ and as she turned I saw blood all the way down her back. I had a fight or flight second, and then went to work.”
Her neighbor, Jennifer Barela, was referring to her husband who had just viciously attacked her with a knife.
Place, a lead chief petty officer at Camp Pendleton and hospital corpsman, began assessing Barela’s condition. She also called another neighbor, Staff Sgt. Thomas McDonald with the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, instructing him to bring his first aid medical bag.
A third neighbor, Staff Sgt. Vincent Bryan, came upon the scene and called 911.
Place explained Barela’s radial artery (on the forearm) was severed.
“The cut was very, very deep,” she said. “By the time I got her to lie down and put a compression bandage on, the grandmother came up and was screaming that he was stabbing her granddaughter.”
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Place then ran after the attacker to save Barela’s daughter.
“I was just thinking she was a baby and he was chasing her. It was awful,” said Place. “I think your mom instincts kick in. Her [mother’s] last words before she fell unconscious were ‘go get my baby’. I think anyone would have done the same thing. When I got there [her daughter] was almost unconscious. Her whole face was cut up.”
By the time Place got to Barela’s daughter another neighbor had restrained the attacker.
The 14-year-old girl was lying in a pool of blood with a severe chest wound. As the girl struggled to breathe, Place began to administer first aid.
With neighbors’ help she repositioned the girl to maintain her airway and instructed them to apply pressure to her stab wounds.
“Luckily I had a great team,” said Place. “It wouldn’t have happened without [the Marines]. That corpsman- Marine team was amazing. That dynamic is so sacred. We all knew what to do and worked off each other. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t have been able to do what I did. They were calm, cool, and collected. I love our corpsman and Marine relationship.”
Both Barela and her daughter survived the attack and were home from the hospital within weeks.
“I’m indebted to her. She’s the reason why I have my daughter here still. She is family now,” said Barela. “All I can say is thank you and I love you, and if it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t have my daughter here. You know, you love your kids, but then you really realize how deeply you love your children when they are almost taken from you.”
Place was awarded an Impact Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal for her selfless and decisive actions. McDonald and Bryan were both also awarded Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals.
"I was surprisingly calm and I was just thinking back to the basics training wise, what's bleeding the worst, keeping the patient comfortable," Place told NBC 7.
She said that night her training kicked in but so did her motherly instincts.
"Now they're my family. Might as well be blood," she said.
