DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) — Call it right place, right time.
Four Illinois Army National Guard medics assisted an injured motorcyclist Aug. 10 while supporting the Northern Strike exercise at Camp Grayling Joint Maneuver Training Center in Michigan, according to the Illinois National Guard.
Sgt. Summer Flores of the North Riverside-based 708th Medical Company said she and three medics — Spc. Joel Ocon, Spc. Melissa Gomez and Spc. Simon Rupniewski — were returning from a training mission on Camp Grayling when they came upon what Flores described as a “big chunk of metal on the highway.”
Sgt. Matt Swope of the Crawford County Sheriff's Office said a man was driving a three-wheeled trike when one of the rear wheels gave way, throwing the man from the motorcycle. Swope said the medics and a civilian doctor were driving by and began assisting the unconscious man before first responders arrived.
Flores said the three soldiers and a civilian doctor secured the unconscious man on a spine board, applied a pelvic binder, treated a head laceration and helped paramedics when they arrived.
“It was clear that they knew what they were doing,” Swope said. “By the time the paramedics arrived and took over, the soldiers had stabilized the motorcyclist.”
Swope said the man is now alive and conscious.
“I am so proud of our Soldiers,” said Maj. Gen. Rodney Boyd, the Adjutant General of Illinois and commander of the Illinois National Guard. “They received the proper training and they exercised that training to the point that it became second nature to them. When this real-life emergency happened, they were confident enough to go do their job.”
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