McConnell firefighter saves eight lives

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Angelique Smythe
  • 22nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan. (AFPN) --  A fire department emergency medic here helped save eight people after a rush-hour collision recently.

Bradford Voorhees, of the 22nd Civil Engineer Squadron, was taking his two children to his brother’s house when he saw cars slowing down and dust and smoke rising across a local highway.

He discovered a van had attempted to enter the highway off an exit ramp and bumped into a semitrailer, pushing the van down an embankment, causing it to flip twice and land upside down.

“I didn’t actually see the wreck,” Mr. Voorhees said. “As we got there, I looked down and saw the van upside down, but there was no medical help down there yet. I pulled my truck over and grabbed my pocket mask in case I needed to do CPR on someone.”

Once he got down the hill, a nurse came running from the other side. She performed rescue breathing on the first person she came upon. Mr. Voorhees gave her his pocket mask and began to triage the others.

“There were six people thrown from the van,” he said. “They were all unconscious when we showed up. There was a man, Kevin Chantivong, 24, wearing a seat belt, and a baby, Jasmine Vo, 1, in a car seat, who were fine. So, I guess there’s a message there. All the windows were busted out, and the front end of the vehicle was crushed; they landed upside down and came out with pretty much just scratches.”

First, Mr. Voorhees checked the van and undercarriage to make sure no one else was trapped. He checked to see if each person was breathing and had a pulse.

“It’s just tough to assess (them), and then you have to leave them there,” he said. “They start crying, and you can tell they don’t want you to go, but you’ve got to move on to the next person (who) might need your help more than they do.”

The last person he came upon was having trouble breathing. Thanh Vo, 19, would not respond verbally to Mr. Voorhees when he tried checking her level of alertness.

He checked for a painful stimulus by giving her a sternum rub on the chest to see if she would show that she felt the pain, and she did.

“She kind of took a gasp of air, so I didn’t have to do CPR,” he said. “And then she started listening to my voice. I said, ‘Take another deep breath for me,’ and (continued to talk) to her. She began to listen, but she still wouldn’t open her eyes.”

At about the time Mr. Voorhees began to hold the young woman’s head to keep her spine in line, other people began running down to help.

One man asked what he could do to help the girl next to her.

“If you don’t have any medical background, don’t do anything,” Mr. Voorhees told him.

After reconsidering and realizing the children were regaining consciousness and starting to move around, Mr. Voorhees showed people how to hold the children’s heads to keep their spine in line and told them to do their best not to let the children move until more help got there.

Just then, the emergency response team showed up. The two critical patients were given oxygen, and Mr. Voorhees helped move patients to the ambulance.

“We had all of them loaded within 20 to 30 minutes,” he said.

Four people -- Michell Nguyen, 37, Thanh Vo, 19, Jenny Vo, 9, and Tian Vo, 9 -- were admitted to a local hospital in critical condition. Two children were admitted to another medical center -- Phuoc Vo, 12, in critical condition, and Tram Nguyen, 12, in serious condition. Mr. Chantivong and Jasmine were released after being treated for minor injuries at the medical center.

“I talked to the father of Kevin Chantivong, and he told me everybody’s going to pull through, but there’s still one in a coma and one who’s paralyzed,” Mr. Voorhees said. “He is supposed to get a hold of me so I can visit the family just to get some closure with the whole thing. Responding to emergencies usually doesn’t bother me, but this was pretty traumatic. I think it’s because of all the children.”

Mr. Voorhees said he was able to help in such a traumatic situation because it is his job. He gives CPR training and recertifies on-duty EMTs and firetruck crews here.

“Brad is probably one of the calmest people I’ve seen in emergency situations,” said Charles Hutson, 22nd CES chief of fire and emergency services. “He takes charge, and he’s very dedicated and very knowledgeable in both fire and emergency medical procedures. He’s a super troop.”

“I wouldn’t change the way I approached the whole situation,” Mr. Voorhees said. “Though pretty chaotic at first, it went pretty smoothly ... surprisingly.

“When I pulled up, I just initially looked and saw that there was nobody to help yet,” he said. “I didn’t have a clue how many people were down there until I ran to the bottom of the hill. It just caught me off guard. That’s the most people I’ve actually had to work with at one time.

“The first thing that came to my mind was the mass casualty exercises we practiced here,” he said. “I ride a rescue truck; that’s my job. I triage patients and put them in categories for us to help them. The training I received here on the base helped immensely.”