Brianna Rigg, RN, is awarded with the Certificate of Appreciation from the Kansas City Missouri Police Department

When officers arrived to the call of a suicidal woman trying to jump off a bridge at Little Blue and Ess roads on July 28, 2014, they found her not on the edge of the bridge but lying in the lap of Ms. Brianna Rigg.

Brianna Rigg, a registered nurse in Telemetry at Saint Luke's East, was driving down the road and noticed a woman lying down by the edge of the bridge, approximately 25 feet from the ground and water. Ms. Rigg then stopped her car and tried to approach the woman. The woman then put her leg up over the concrete barrier of the bridge and said, “I want to kill myself, and I will jump!” Ms. Rigg quickly grabbed her and held her to the ground to prevent her from jumping. 

Before officers arrived, Ms. Rigg already had formed a bond with the woman. She only wanted to talk to Brianna, so Ms. Rigg helped the officers by asking her questions, getting her identification and then helping her to the ambulance.

“Ms. Rigg went above and beyond,” Sergeant Eric Stucker said. “She put herself into a critical situation that could have turned very bad in a moment’s time, but she did what she thought was right.”

Officers later determined the suicidal woman had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and bipolar disorder. They also learned that before trying to jump off the bridge, she’d laid down on nearby railroad tracks in a previous unsuccessful suicide attempt.

For her outstanding assistance to the Kansas City Missouri Police Department, Chief Darryl Forté, along with the Board of Police Commissioners, is pleased to present the Certificate of Appreciation to Ms. Brianna Rigg.