Lee Bradford knew there were dangers to being a volunteer firefighter and accepted those risks, but he hoped they would never occur.
Those hopes were dashed earlier this week when he lost at least two fingers while helping rescue three people trapped in a car.
Bradford, a firefighter with the Wesson Volunteer Fire Department, was injured Sunday after responding to an accident on I-55 at the Wesson exit. Three men returning from Mardi Gras lost control of their vehicle and left the interstate. All three were pinned in the wreckage, according to Earnestine Conn, Bradford's grandmother.
Bradford was using the Jaws of Life to free the men. As he worked to free the last one, he lost control of the life-saving equipment and it sheared the ring and middle fingers of his right hand.
"It got all five fingers to an extent," Conn said. "The others had severe lacerations and were barely holding on."
An ambulance, which was already on the scene for the car crash, kept him alive and transferred him to the hospital, Conn said.
"Because the ambulance was there, they may be able to save his fingers," she said. "The doctors still don't know."
The fingers were reattached, but such operations are always questionable, Conn said.
Bradford underwent a surgical evaluation Wednesday to determine if his body would accept the reattachment, but results were not immediately available.
Speaking briefly Wednesday through a haze of pain and medication from his hospital room at University Medical Center in Jackson, Bradford questioned his future.
Bradford, 25, is employed with Dixie Packaging in Summit, Conn said, and the injury could affect his ability to do his job.
To make matters worse, Bradford and his wife are expecting their first child. His wife will miss work with the pregnancy, and the couple will have to provide for a child without either of them working until she can return to her job, Conn said.
"I don't have time to deal with all that right now," Bradford said, referring to the personal issues he must confront once released from the hospital. "I have to deal with this first."
Volunteer firefighters are bonded and have insurance through the county, but Bradford said he has not discussed his situation with officials yet.
The family is taking one crisis at a time, and their first priority is to get Bradford well and released from the hospital, Conn said. The rest can come later.
