Earlier this month, Webster County EMT Jeff Burke's quick actions may have saved the life of a patient when a fire truck parked behind the ambulance he was loading her into popped out of gear.
As the rig began rolling toward them on Oct. 2 in the town of Barnum, Burke gave the gurney a shove before he was pinned between the ambulance and the fire truck, according to KCCI-TV.
"So I was between her, there was the ambulance, me, the gurney and I just kind of two-handed shoved her," Burke told the news station from a hospital bed in Des Moines this week. "It was a matter of, you know, you can’t think that fast. There's the truck and it pinned me."
While the shove was enough to get the patient out of harm's way, he was in grave danger after becoming pinned and started going into shock.
Responders were on their way, but before they arrived, Burke's patient provided support that he said saved his own life.
From her gurney next to the ambulance he was pinned against, he reached out her hand and grabbed his. "She just kept rubbing it and rubbing it," he said. "At that point I thought, I have too many kids in my life, too many grandkids, and she brought me back.”
Burke fractured both of his femurs; two bones in his left shin and his pelvis in two spots, but said that he considers himself lucky.
