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 They had passed through Mount Pulaski, had seen
the grass sculpture on the hillside outside of that town that
clearly said “God (heart) loves you.” They were planning to spend
the night in Lincoln before continuing on their trip home. Just
south of Chestervale, Sharon was checking her phone, looking at the
confirmations on their motel plans. “I heard Myron say ‘Oh NO!” I
looked up and there was a vehicle right in our lane!” Sharon recalls
Myron jerking the steering wheel of their white Chevrolet Silverado
pick-up sharply to the right. Here in the Land of Lincoln we often
refer to that as ‘taking the ditch’ as a desperate attempt to avoid
a head on collision.
Myron gave it his best effort, and the end result is that more than
likely he saved the life of his wife, because after the collision,
the majority of the damage to the vehicle was to the driver side.
Sharon was for all practical purposes uninjured. She reported she
had her seat belt bruise and bruises on her right side from being
slammed about inside the vehicle. She had a sore wrist but no broken
bones.
For Myron it was a completely different story. Pinned behind the
steering wheel of the truck, the metal and machinery under the hood
of the truck were shoved back toward the cab and Myron was trapped
by the dashboard inside the vehicle.
A motorist following behind the Fehr’s had seen the whole thing and
called 911. Responding to the initial call of a two vehicle crash
were Lincoln Rural Fire and city of Lincoln Fire Departments along
with the Logan County Paramedics.
Trevor Matheny with
the Lincoln Rural Fire Protection District, Aaron Johnson, James
Reed and Ashely Williams with the city of Lincoln Fire Department
pose for a picture with Myron and Sharon Fehr of Manitoba, Canada.
Firefighters/first responders Seth Thomas and
Trevor Matheney were among the ones arriving from Lincoln rural.
City first responders on the scene included James Reed, Ashley
Williams, Aaron Johnson and Robert Wood. Crystal Bale was among the
responders from the Logan County Paramedics.
Myron was seriously injured and it took months for him to recover to
the point that he could travel again. And still today, he has one
more surgery ahead of him before the doctors will consider that his
broken body has been repaired to the best of their ability. However,
this week in spite of that, the couple returned to Logan County, as
well as Springfield, to visit with the people who saved Myron’s
life.
In Lincoln this week that stop happened on Wednesday at the Lincoln
Rural Fire station where they met the Lincoln and Lincoln Rural
firefighters who rescued them.
Talking about the accident, the Fehr’s and the various first
responders put the story together.
April 12th, 2018, the 911 call came across of the two vehicle
accident on Route 121. Within eight minutes the Lincoln city fire
was on hand, and the Lincoln Rural and LCPA were very close behind.
For the first responders it was a divide and conquer situation.
There were two vehicles with injured parties trapped inside. At
least two people in need of medical attention and in both cases
getting to the accident victim was going to be the biggest part of
the battle.
Firefighter Aaron Johnson with the city department was the leader
for that particular shift. He recalls that it was Ashley Williams
and James Reed who took on the task of freeing Myron.
Johnson said one of the first big challenges was with the position
of the seat Myron was sitting in. Traveling in a pick-up truck the
couple had stowed their luggage behind the seat. That luggage was
now preventing the seat from being moved back. Johnson said that the
first responders had to take a knife to the luggage, rip it open,
pull out the contents until there was enough slack to pull the
luggage out of the truck. Then the hard work began piece-by-piece
cutting things away from Myron until he could be freed from the
wreckage.
The first responders were puzzled by Sharon. Ashely Williams
remembers thinking at first that she was a witness who had crawled
inside the truck to be with Myron while waiting for rescue. It was
because she was unhurt, and her physical appearance didn’t match the
rest of the scene. Johnson remembered escorting her away from the
vehicle. Sharon remembers that part as well. Williams recalled her
insistence that she did not want or need his attention, her only
concern was for her husband as he led her away from the accident. On
this day she looked at Johnson and said, “I’m sorry.” She went on to
explain that she saw no reason for anyone to be paying attention to
her, she was fine and her husband was in trouble. She also recalls
being led to the side of the fire truck and standing there watching
and thinking, “I’m going to pass out.” She found a seat and waited
and watched the horror story before her.
It took 90 minutes to free Myron from the wreckage. Paramedic
Crystal Bale had been with Myron and had called for a life flight to
Springfield for her patient. Once freed from the wreckage, Myron was
flown to St. John’s Hospital in Springfield. His injury assessment
was astonishing and it was clear, that Myron Fehr should not have
survived that wreck, and would probably not have survived had it not
been for the careful attention he got at the accident scene.
Myron was assessed with a broken neck, his back was
broken in multiple locations. He had a broken pelvis and hip, as
well as the sternum and multiple ribs. He had a punctured lung,
lacerated liver and pancreas, and arterial damage on the right side
of his heart.
Myron was tended to by skilled doctors and medical staff at St.
John’s, including two doctors with active duty military experience.
Sharon remembers feeling that doctors who had seen injuries in
active duty were probably pretty well prepared for what they were
facing with Myron. The trauma doctor who tended to them was a lady
doctor named Dr. Small, and both Myron and Sharon are deeply
appreciative of that doctor who gave such good care to Myron.
Ten days into his stay in Springfield, Myron’s organs shut down.
Sharon remembers their children had come from Canada at the time of
the accident. They had to return home so the couple had been at the
hospital without them when Myron started to decline. Sharon called
the kids and they returned to Springfield. Doctors gave it
everything they had and by some amazing miracle, hour-by-hour Myron
began to return to them.
Six weeks later, Myron was flown to a hospital in Winnipeg, Canada,
where he stayed for another month. He then spent an additional month
at a hospital closer to their home in Manitoba.
[to top of second column] |
 This week talking about the accident, Sharon says
she remembers most of everything that happened. Myron on the other
hand remembers very little. For the couple, Sharon was seeing the
people in Lincoln who had saved her husband. For Myron, he was
meeting the people in Lincoln who had saved his life. At the same
time, both Sharon and Johnson say that Myron was awake and talking
during his rescue. He just has no recall.
Physically Myron looks good, and gets around okay. It is easy to
imagine that he perhaps is moving a little slower than he did before
the accident, and some of his injuries had an impact on his voice.
His speech is clear and so his his mind, but his voice is a little
raspy and hushed.
As the couple visited with the first responders on Thursday, the
couple said that returning to Logan County was a pilgrimage of
thanksgiving. They were so appreciative of the first responders and
paramedics that they wanted to say it out loud in person to each one
of them. Ultimately, there were no words strong enough or big enough
to express to those first responders how they felt, but the
sentiment was strong.
Sharon noted that in this world the news is full of so many bad
things. While they had been a little shy about speaking with
reporters in Lincoln, and also in Springfield were they had visited
a day or two before, they at the same time were delighted to be able
to have a positive impact and shine a good light on the people who
helped them so much.
Myron spoke directly to the two first responders who helped him,
saying that what had happened in Logan County one year ago wasn’t
about team work, it was about family. He compared the city and rural
firefighters and paramedics as a family who were very much in tune
to one another and all knew how to work together very well. For
Myron comparing them to a family was a much greater compliment than
saying they were a good team.
While the couple was on hand to say thanks, the first responders
were also appreciative. It was noted that the first responders
attend to a lot of people for a lot of reasons. The accident had
been a terrible one, and for the first responders, it was wonderful
to see someone whom they did help come back and let them know that
the scenario had ended well. They noted aloud their thanks back to
the couple for making this second trip to Logan County, just to see
them.
So, the last piece of the puzzle - How was it that a couple from
Canada traveling home from Kentucky ended up between Mount Pulaski
and Lincoln?
Sharon said they always took the ‘small’ roads when they traveled.
They avoid the big cities and the interstates and enjoy the
countryside, utilizing the two-lane highways. They had mapped their
route, and were right on track to spend the night at a Lincoln
motel.
And, Sharon made one more big observation. She said that the couple
has stayed in touch with the young man who was following them at the
time of the wreck. He helped fill in some of the gaps in how the
accident happened. But she said at one time he noted that he was
approaching the couple’s white pick-up from behind and would have
passed them when he got to them. Sharon noted, “It could have been
him. A young man with a wife and a young family. It could have been
him. It is better that it was us.”
On Thursday morning, Sharon touched based with LDN one last time as
the couple prepared to leave town for home. She had two messages to
deliver.
“It felt so right to meet the first responders. (It) has been an
amazing trip, emotional, but it feels like closure. Now we have to
make it home, a little scary, but we know God is with us and has a
plan.
“Here is a photo I took yesterday a couple miles from
the crash site. Myron thinks he remembers it from a year ago. If you
know these people, let them know how much we appreciated seeing
that.”
In addition to those who were on hand Thursday, Johnson also noted
that there were off duty responders from Mount Pulaski who came to
help, and also there was an off duty responder from Decatur who came
upon the scene and stopped to help. There was also another passerby
– a young nurse, whom the Fehrs never learned her name. Nonetheless,
she was there and she helped. All these people were part of God’s
plan and the final message to all was that it was not Myron’s day to
go. Everyone was in the right place at the right time and the Ferhs
will hopefully enjoy many more vacation trips on the ‘small’ roads.
While visiting at the
Lincoln Rural Fire Protection District station this week, Myron and
Sharon shared photos Sharon had taken of the accident scene as well
as scenes of Myron's long recovery in various hospitals. In turn,
Ashley Williams shared some of the department photos that had been
taken during the rescue efforts.
[Nila Smith]
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