Ex-Scout Helps Save Wreck Victim's Life

[Beavah 205]

 

A great story below. Goin' back to the "What is Scouting?" thread, is the ability to handle an emergency part of what we are? And if so, are we doin' that well? Are we givin' kids today the same quality of instruction and settin' the same high expectations that allowed this man's Boy Scout trainin' to save a life many years later? Would an average seat-time summer camp FA MB have accomplished this?

 

 

Ex-Scout Helps Save Wreck Victim's Life

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/1590514/

 

Smithfield A Johnston County man credits his Boy Scout training for his life-saving effort on the shoulder of Interstate 40 two months ago.

 

Steven Parker was driving on I-40 on May 20 when he witnessed a wreck. A car speeding down the interstate in the wrong direction slammed head-on into another vehicle near Clayton.

 

The second vehicle flipped several times, and Blake Leonard, 21, ripped through his seat belt and was thrown from the vehicle.

 

"It was probably one of the most horrible things I've ever seen in my life," said Parker, who pulled off I-40 and ran over to help.

 

"The only thing I remember from as soon as the wreck happened was pretty much just picking my leg up off the ground and holding it," Leonard said.

 

Parker grabbed a pair of jeans from the wrecked car, tied it around Leonard's leg and used his fist to make a tourniquet. He slowed the blood flow and kept Leonard calm until paramedics arrived.

 

"He was obviously a young kid, and all I could think about was, if I don't stop this bleeding, he's going to die right here in front of me," Parker said.

 

He credited his childhood experience as a Boy Scout for knowing what to do. Special Forces paramedics from Fort Bragg taught his troop first aid, he said.

 

"After it was all said and done, I was shaking," he said of his roadside experience. "I don't know how you keep it together with something like that other than the fact that someone else is depending on you."

 

Leonard's leg had to be amputated, and he underwent 10 surgeries during a 41-day stay in the hospital. But he and his mother credit Parker with keeping him alive.

 

"We consider the guy who saved Blake's life to be an angel," said Leonard's mother, Martha Lancaster. "He is our all-time hero in this."

 

Leonard and Lancaster said they have spoken to Parker on the phone and hope to meet him in person. In the meantime, Leonard is learning to walk again with a prosthetic leg.

 

"If he hadn't done it, I wouldn't be here ... right now," Leonard said.

 

But Parker dismissed the hero talk.

 

"I think the real heroes would be like the paramedics and the doctors who actually did save his life. I might have bought him a little bit of time," he said.

[Gonzo1 10]

I think it kinda ties in with the knot tying and Tenderfoot stuff. You just never know when you're gonna need the skills. Whether it's knot tying, saving a life in this case with first aid or any other basic scout skill, the basics just make a lad a better, more prepared person.