Presentation to the Heroes on November 5th
Tonight was wonderful. Layton City presented the EMS crew, the AirMed flight crew and Francis Family with a LifeSaver Medal for their part in saving Brigham's life.
This night had been in the works since Layton City Fire department came to our home to visit back in September. What an amazing experience.
Jason Cook (Battalion chief over the EMS crew) read this,
"Just before 10:00am on august 7th of this year, 20 year old Brigham and his father Jeremy were putting the finishing touches on a residential remodel project here in town. Knowing his dad has a lot of paperwork to catch up on and being very comfortable with the work that needed to be completed, Brigham told his dad to go home and he would finish the job. Shortly after his dad left, Brigham began working on the stair tread for a large deck at the home.
After making the cut with a circular saw, the blade guard caught on Brigham's pants, plunging the circular saw into his upper leg near the groin. Brigham immediately knew that he was seriously injured, describing it as " I heard myself bleeding." For those of you that don't know, the femoral artery is the largest of our peripheral arteries, which is under tremendous pressure. Injuries like this are typically fatal in 3-5 minutes without aggressive bleeding control. He immediately called for help, which caught the attention of Dana Francis, the homeowner. She glanced out to see Brigham bleeding heavily from his wound, "spraying" blood from beneath Brigham's hands. She ran back in the home, yelling downstairs to her husband Malin and her son Landon to come help her, while trying to find a towel to control the bleeding. Dana and Malin tried desperately to stop the bleeding coming from Brigham's for femoral artery and vein, while Landon called 911.
As information was relayed from the 911 caller to the responding units, they realized this was a situation that required an EMS helicopter. Before arriving on scene, they requested the AirMed helicopter team from Davis Hospital be dispatched. Also, while enroute, they prepared a new medication Tranexamic Acid or TXA, which preserves clots in our body, providing hemostasis, or slowing the bleeding process. Our agency is the 1st in Utah to carry this lifesaving medication, specifically for instances like this.
Once on scene Captain Dion Santistevan, Engineer Chon Morfin, FF/PM's Patrick Cook, Gary McCloy, and Justin Siddal began assessing + treating Brigham's injury. They "packed" his wound with additional hemostatic dressings and continued to apply direct pressure. Because of the central location, tourniquets were not an option. Multiple IV's were established, IV fluids to replace lost blood and the TXA were administered.
Moments later the AirMed team with Pilot Jake Bass, and flight nurses Judy Maas & Ron Delpino arrived, assisting LFD units rapidly treat & package Brigham. For the first time at this AirMed base, the crew was carrying resuscitation blood, or trauma blood, which had just been added to helicopters two weeks prior. Because IV fluids do not have the capacity to carry oxygen to the tissues, trauma blood is administered, preventing hin from exsanguinating or bleeding to death, before reaching the hospital.
Realizing the severity of his injury, and that he would soon die if the bleeding wasnt stopped, the team would forgo traditional interventions on scene, understanding that the only thing he needed at the moment was a vascular surgeon. The team flew Brigham to Mckay Dee hopsita where they bypassed the ED, instead rushing immediately to an awaiting surgical suite. Ironically, the surgeon that was at Mckay Dee that day, was not supposed to be there. As his mom and dad waited in the parkin glot for hours and hours, they soon were told by the surgeon that Brigham had survived his injury, but that they expected that the nerve damage would cause him to lose sensation and movement in his leg. Brigham would you join us up front (at this point Brigham walked without a limp to the front to stand next to Ron Delpino - they were shocked to see him walking) As you've seen tonight, Brigham has happily regained almost all sensation and full range of motion and movement in his leg.
Without being melodramatic...Brigham should not have survived his injury that day. EVERY possible thing needed to go right for Brigham that day...and it did. Had just one element been missing, from Dana, Landon, Malin not being home, which they were due to Covid, to the LFD EMS crew having & administering TXA, the AirMed flight crew being as close as they were & having trauma blood to administer, to the incredible urgency & care that he received at Mckay-Dee. Had just one part of this equation been missing, I don't believe Brigham would have survived. BUT, because of the amazing work of each of these people, Brigham is here with us today. Because highest level of care he received at Mckay-Dee, we get to enjoy a celebration instead of mourn a tragedy. It is because of this, that Layton Fire & Dr. Mark Oraskovich, on behalf of Mayor Petro, the Layton city Council, the Layton City Administration would like to extend our deepest "THANKS" and present each of them with a LifeSaver medal."
I still tear up as I see these beautiful people. They all have made a difference in our life through their skills, talents and desire to help another. There is not enough words or gratitude that I can express but I still wanted the Heroes to know our appreciation. So I handed them a thank you card with a delicious stroopwafel.
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