An 18-year-old firefighter in central North Carolina was paralyzed after being ejected from his truck while responding to a call earlier this week.
WRAL reports that Cecil Dale Thornton, a member of the Blackman's Crossroads Volunteer Fire Department near Four Oaks in Johnston County, was badly injured Monday morning when his pickup ran off the road and overturned during a medical call, ejecting him from the cab.
According to WRAL, family members and the N.C. State Highway Patrol said the high school senior had been paralyzed from the waist down as a result of the accident. Thornton's family reported that he had surgery Tuesday and has only a 5 percent chance of walking again.
"Responding to emergencies in our line of work is never easy, but especially when it involves one of our own," the Blackman's Crossroads VFD said in a Facebook post about the tragic incident.
