28 August 2024
Jessica Mathews / [email protected]
Several local youths responded to the scene during Tuesday’s storms after a large tree smashed the windshield of a woman’s car in Hartland Township.
The operation involved the confirmed rescue and partial amputation of a critical patient.
Declan Faron, 17, attends Hartland High School and was driving home from work yesterday with two friends, Cruz Hammond and Cory Gwyn, when several trees fell at the corner of Clyde and Fenton Road.
Faron told WHMI a large tree flew through the windshield of a black Honda SUV and they cleared all large branches and trees out of the way with the help of another gentleman on the scene. He said an off-duty paramedic nearby helped the critically injured woman.
As soon as the road was cleared, they immediately ran to the woman and made sure she was responsive and breathing, Faron said, but her left arm and chest were mutilated. He said his friends comforted her daughter, who was sitting in the car in front of her, crying hysterically while she talked on the phone with emergency services.
Faron said he held up the woman’s airbag while the off-duty paramedic tied her arm into a tourniquet with a ratchet strap, and that EMS might have to amputate it. Faron said he and his friends cleared the remaining branches and leaves from the road so the ambulance could get through easily.
There is no information available about the condition of the affected woman.
Livingston County Sheriff’s Deputy Jason Pless told WHMI that the first report received said the driver suffered a very serious arm injury and was taken to the University of Michigan Hospital for emergency care. Pless said they had no further updates on the driver’s condition, but they expect her to survive. He noted that there was concern at the scene of the accident about whether her arm would need to be amputated due to the nature of the injury sustained.