Marjorie Bottorff’s Transcript
Dale Bottorff: I woke up evening time six o’clock and I noticed that she was laying on the couch, strangely, kind of half on half off. I immediately called my son and he knew the sings of stroke, obviously we called 9-1-1. They did their thing, got her on a gurney and her ready to get her out. And they said, “You better go with us because the hospital is going to have questions.”
Emily Reynolds: We were responding to Atrium Medical Center lights and sirens and we were on State Route 122 almost to Middletown and it happened so fast. I screamed loud enough that it got Jessie’s attention. So, we had the initial impact, flew through the air for what felt like forever, and then hit on the side of the ambulance. We missed the telephone pole by feet and then landed on top of the hydrant. I got on the radio, put on emergency traffic, told them, “Medic 41, emergency traffic, we’ve been involved in a head-on collision.”
Jesse McPherson: When it happened, I was on the phone with Atrium’s Medical Center’s ER staff calling in a stoke alert. I had the phone in one hand and I was trying to give her a 12-lead EKG at the same time I was calling in the stroke alert. I hit my head on the counter, I was knocked out briefly, regained consciousness. Immediately, whole face was covered in blood, my neck was really painful.
Dale Bottorff: We were instructed to climb through the ambulance, me and Emily got out and then they got Margie out. She was taken to Atrium (inaudible) and they got her a flight to Miami Valley Hospital. I would say for the long road, of course we’ll never know all the all severities that the delay caused, it was a life changer.
Emily Reynolds: So I was taken to Atrium Medical Center. They took me to CT (inaudible), they x-rayed my foot and my knee. They saw that there were multiple fractures in my injury. That was my biggest goal is to be able to hike again so I ended up doing three months of physical therapy for my ankle and for my knee. I still have the ringing in my ear from time to time but a little bit of hearing loss in my left ear but it’s one of the risks I took with this job. I’ve accepted that at this point. So I was off work for three months and I was on light duty for a few months before I could come back full time.
Jesse McPherson: I remember getting to the Atrium Medical Center ER and somebody started an IV on me and the x-rays there. They sent me to CT for my head. I’ve got some slipped discs that are permanently slipped on the back of my neck and my doctor there at Atrium Medical Center, Dr. Burcheky, did an amazing job taking care of my neck. He was calm, he understood the situation. He gave me a lot of confidence that I’d be able to return to work, and he was right and here I am back at work, so I owe him a big thank you for everything he did for me. I think he did a really good job getting back to work. And following the accident we had - it definitely changed my life. And it put a lot of fear that I wouldn’t be able to continue my life, pursuing my interests and hobbies in the outdoors. It took a long time for me to accept my injuries, and it took a lot of prayers for me to recover as well as I did and as quickly as I did. I was pretty eager to get back to work as soon as possible. There’s not a whole lot of firefighters that come back after breaking their neck. It could be a career ending injury for sure.
Emily Reynolds - It was good to have him back, really. It felt like everything was back to normal, more or less. We’ve kind of taken. We’ve kind of taken this negative situation to the positive through preaching safety. We say a lot but this was preventable accident.
Jesse McPherson: People need to learn to pull over when they see lights and sirens coming and stop. We were aware of the risks before we took the job…
Emily Reynolds: But we never thought that risk would actually. I think it’s the best job in the world, honestly. It’s helping people when their at their worst.
Jesse McPherson: We’re still here. I think we’ve all rebounded very well and continue every day to get better. So, I think it’s a miracle that it turned out as well as it did. I think everything for as bad as the accident was, everything turned out to be ok.
Emily Reynolds: There are a lot worse.
Jesse McPherson: We’re glad to be here. She’s getting better every day so that’s a good thing. It’s a slow healing process and it’s something I don’t think we’re ever going to forget to happen.
