Retired CHP commander recalls time in Lake County, talks of mission to prevent sudden cardiac death in young people
- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – After a four-year tenure, the commander of the Clear Lake Area office of the California Highway Patrol has retired, with plans to continue his successful and lifesaving efforts to educate student athletes and their families about congenital heart defects, which brought heartbreak to his own family.
Lt. Hector Paredes said he’s built close friendships and ties to the community since he arrived in Lake County in September 2014.
By the time he finished up work at the Clear Lake Area office in Kelseyville on Friday, Aug. 17, Paredes, now 58, had spent approximately 35 years and eight months in the California Highway Patrol.
At the time of his retirement he also was the senior ranking CHP lieutenant, with the longest tenure statewide. He’d held the lieutenant’s rank since March 1, 2001, and Clear Lake was his third and final command.
The CHP began advertising for Paredes’ successor during his last week in the job. He said the goal was to have a new commander selected by October.
And that goal has been accomplished: On Tuesday, the Clear Lake Area CHP office is set to welcome its new commander. Lt. Randy England, who is coming from Garberville.
Since Paredes left for retirement, Sgt. Steve Krul, the Clear Lake Area office’s senior sergeant, has served as acting commander.
Making the community safer
His four years in Lake County proved to be busy and productive for Paredes, whose command was tested in a string of disasters – both fire and flood.
The office’s more than two dozen officers assisted in evacuating thousands of Lake County residents out of the paths of eight devastating wildland fires and helped patrol evacuated communities, while also managing road and highway closures.
One of his officers, Steven Patrick, was injured when a Clearlake Oaks man went on an October 2017 shooting rampage that killed two others. Patrick was struck in his bulletproof vest and eventually helped pursue and capture the suspect. Paredes hailed Patrick as a hero.
Besides dealing with disasters and the daily challenges of protecting the public and patrolling highways in Lake County – where Paredes said roads can be dangerous, dark, windy and often only two lanes – Paredes collaborated closely with other agencies to solve problems.
In March 2016, when the Lakeport Police Department was facing a staffing shortage, Paredes reached an agreement with Chief Brad Rasmussen to handle traffic enforcement within the city on a limited basis.
Under Paredes’ leadership, the local CHP office also took part in community outreach, including the “Coffee with a Cop” events to connect law enforcement with area residents.
Paredes said the focus after he arrived was to reach out to all segments of the community and let them know the CHP was there to serve them. He also wanted to place more emphasis on education and what the CHP can do for county residents.
Paredes’ interest in education led to an increase in “Start Smart” classes for teen drivers, working with the organization Impact Teen Drivers on local educational outreach, and “Age Well, Drive Smart” courses for seniors. The classes were well received, and Paredes said the classes for seniors were always full.
He also managed to increase local CHP staffing, which is now up to 25 assigned officers and three sergeants. Paredes put in motion the work to secure another officer and another sergeant.
“It's hard because everyone is asking for more officers,” he said, but he nonetheless pushed forward because, as he noted, Lake County has many needs.
During his time in the county, Paredes – whose parents immigrated from El Salvador – said he saw a tremendous need for outreach in the Hispanic and tribal communities, and worked with partners to create a program to address their concerns and bridge gaps in their awareness of traffic laws.
Paredes said he has enjoyed the community’s warmth and its people, and said he took pleasure in working with his law enforcement peers, including Rasmussen, Sheriff Brian Martin, Bill Salata of State Parks and the Clearlake Police Department.
“We just get along great here,” he said.
During Paredes’ time in Lake County, state laws regulating and legalizing cannabis went into effect. He believes that California is years away from getting a proper handle on the impacts of those laws and on how cannabis use will impact users – especially those who drive.
In Lake County, Paredes said he could see the results of the CHP’s work more clearly as compared to bigger cities. “What they do out in the field makes a direct impact,” he said, explaining his staff are making contact with people and keeping the road safer.
His conclusions are based on statistical data the department keeps, he said. Paredes reviewed those numbers monthly, and he said overall services including enforcement contacts, have gone up.
The goal, he said, “is to make our community safer.”
The CHP also is working on a public trust initiative, supported by CHP Commissioner Warren Stanley.
Paredes said that every other week he received a great message or social media post about one of his officers who went out of their way to assist a community member. He said his officers frequently went above and beyond.
He added that earning public trust requires first acting from the heart.
On a lighter note, another question was posed to Paredes about the CHP: In an organization noted for its vehicles, he was asked to weigh in on the best patrol vehicle.
Without hesitation, Paredes said it was the 1994 Chevy Impala, which was very fast thanks to its Corvette engine. Even so, it was only in service in the CHP for a few years.
The Ford Mustang patrol cars used in the 1980s were powerful but had a short wheel base, so they could spin easily and weren’t good for young officers. “They went fast. And fast was fun,” he admitted.
He said the worst were the Dodge Diplomats, which were uncomfortable and had no power.
The Ford Crown Victorias eventually were phased out because they couldn’t support the weight of the equipment officers are required to carry.
In recent years, the CHP has transitioned to Ford Explorer SUVs. Paredes said he doesn’t like the SUVs as well because of their handling, although he said that has improved.
He said the CHP is now moving to Dodge Chargers, more of which are appearing around Lake County.
Labor of love, saving lives
Before his arrival in Lake County, Paredes formed the nonprofit Eric Paredes Save A Life Foundation, named for his son, who died in 2009 at age 17 from an undetected heart defect.
While working as Clear Lake’s commander, Paredes continued to run the foundation created to honor his son, and the organization is continuing to grow and rack up a list of accomplishments, from passing legislation to detecting student athletes with potentially fatal heart issues.
The organization’s latest statistics show its growing impact: To date, it has screened 28,707 teenagers, detected 462 cardiac abnormalities – of which 203 were at risk – and placed 88 automated external defibrillators in youth communities that it said are now protecting 75,188 hearts.
Eric Paredes died of long QT syndrome, a malfunction of the heart's electrical activity, Hector Paredes said.
Before that, Paredes said he’d never heard of such a thing.
Many people still don’t know about the dangers of such heart conditions, and confuse them with other problems, believing heart attacks are responsible, he said.
However, Paredes pointed out, “If people are collapsing in their 20s or younger, that's not a heart attack.”
Sudden cardiac arrest among youth is the single largest killer of student athletes, he said.
“We lose a teen about every three days,” said Paredes, noting he knows of three students in Lake County who died of it.
“It is preventable,” he said.
Paredes said his son was a contact sport athlete from the time he was small. He showed no symptoms of any problems leading up to his death.
It was after his son’s death that Paredes began to understand the widespread nature of heart health for children.
“You know that there are kids in this county walking around with an undiagnosed heart condition,” he said.
On a normal basis, he estimated that about 1.5 percent of the young people who his foundation screens are found to have an undiagnosed heart condition.
He said the foundation is now one of the largest nonprofits doing this type of screening work in the nation, and Duke University and other research entities have approached them because they want the data they’ve collected.
At the larger screening events in Southern California, they see up to 1,200 students, which usually requires about 120 volunteers, he said. There are usually a few students identified with heart conditions at each event.
If their basic heart tests find anything, the students are referred to their doctor to follow up with echocardiograms. Paredes said they don’t diagnose at screenings, but instead their medical director will follow up with the student’s doctor to share findings.
For some students, the solution is as simple as treatment with medicine. For others, some surgery may be required, he said.
Paredes said an enlarged heart is the leading cause of sudden cardiac death, and often results in students not being able to play sports. Most universities test everything but the heart, he said. “The literature isn't forcing them to do it.”
However, Paredes said concerns about concussion injury is “driving the needle” a little more when it comes to taking a new and more comprehensive approach to student athlete health.
Some leading doctors in Seattle are now championing the issue with the NCAA, and Paredes’ foundation is pushing more as literature comes out to support testing.
“There's no downside,” he said.
One of the foundation’s major achievement is the passage of a bill in the California Legislature.
In September 2016, Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 1639, The Eric Paredes Sudden Cardiac Arrest Prevention Act.
Hector Paredes said the bill requires that all public school athletic coaches complete a webinar that teaches them to know the symptoms of sudden cardiac arrest.
The law also requires that a fact sheet about sudden cardiac death go home with children playing sports, and that both parents and children are required to read and sign them as pat of the education process, Paredes said.
He’s now pursuing an amendment to the legislation that would require the fact sheet go out to all families with children in grades kindergarten through 12th grade, regardless of whether or not they are playing sports. He said parents need to know certain symptoms may be related to the heart.
Paredes has another goal as well: To make electrocardiograms, or EKGs, mandatory for school sports physicals.
He said he was working with Lakeport Fire and Sutter Lakeside Hospital to set up screenings local for student athletes, an effort which was interrupted by the recent fires.
Paredes, however, still wants to see them established locally and plans to come back to help run them if the effort can get back on track.
Just a week after he retired, Paredes was back in San Diego, where the foundation was doing health screenings for student athletes ahead of school in an effort to save lives.
Paredes, who is the foundation’s president, wants to focus more of the foundation’s efforts on native communities. Habematolel Pomo Chair Sherry Treppa has connected him with tribal leaders in Southern California who he plans to meet with as part of that goal.
Follow the foundation on Twitter @EPSaveALife and Facebook, and visit its Web site for more information and ways to help.
A new chapter
When he arrived in Lake County, Paredes said he thought he would stay a few years and possibly move toward Sacramento. In the end, he stayed a few years longer than he had intended.
“The last couple of years I really connected with the community. I loved what we were doing here,” he said, adding that he also enjoyed the people.
Ultimately, he decided to head back south to San Diego, where he was raised; much of his family, including his daughter – who was married within a few weeks of his retirement – lives there, and he has kept a home there as well.
He enjoyed his time in the CHP immensely. “I can't believe they paid me to do this,” he said, sitting in his office on that final Friday.
There’s “an incredible amount of satisfaction that comes from knowing you were able to help,” he said.
“That's the part I think I will miss, that I was blessed to serve with this particular organization,” he explained.
“I was trained to help people and I've done that most of my adult life,” he added.
“It has been an honor to serve in this community, and that's what I take away,” he said. “I made a lot of great friends, a lot of caring people.”
Paredes also promised he’ll be back for visits in the future. But, not one to slow down, he’s already off and away on another adventure.
In 2012, Paredes hiked the Camino de Santiago, also known as the Pilgrimage of Compostela or the Way of St. James, the 500-mile-long route that stretches from southern France to northwest Spain and crosses the Pyrenees. Countless pilgrims have traveled the camino since the Middle Ages.
This month, Paredes and his 79-year-old father, Oscar, are following the path of the camino not on foot – but on bicycle.
On Sunday morning they took a break in Sahagún, Spain, after riding 26 miles, and are hoping to get to Leon, Spain, by day’s end, which is another 40 miles along on their ride.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.