A 63-year-old Smith?s Parish resident this week thanked two Police Officers for ?saving his life?, saying he would not be here today if they had not pulled him over on a supposed traffic violation.

In October, Leslie Pryce was knocked to the ground and subsequently hit his head.

He said the fight started over a business transaction ?gone wrong? and he was punched twice, once in the neck and once in the mouth.

The punch to the mouth, he said, knocked him backwards where he hit his head so hard on the ground that he blacked out.

He was taken to hospital, but said doctors gave him a clean bill of health and sent him on his way.

Shortly after that Mr. Pryce said he began getting migraines that were so intense he sometimes couldn?t see anything.

While driving home one day about two weeks ago, he was pulled over by two officers ? P.c. Mark Lewis and P.c. Shannon Trott.

?They thought I had been drinking because they said I was swerving all over the road and crossing the centre line,? he said.

Mr. Pryce said he told the officers he did not drink, but they insisted on taking him back to Hamilton Police Station for a breathalyser.

It was this act, he said, that saved his life because when the test came back negative for alcohol, the two officers insisted he go to hospital.

?They said there must be something else seriously wrong with me then,? he said and rushed him to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital where he was seen in the emergency ward.

Mr. Pryce said the doctors found a blood clot on his brain and scheduled him for an emergency operation.

?They saved my life, if I had made it home that day and gone to bed, I might not have woken up again,? he said.

Mr. Pryce was in hospital for eight days and also thanked Dr. King and Dr. Dores, whom he said performed the ?life-saving operation?.

?They tell me I?ll be OK now,? he said, adding that he came out of hospital last week and just wanted to thank the Police officers.

?You always hear so many negative things about the Police, but at the end of the day I owe them my life.?