After witnessing "horrific" crash, surgeon rushes to help driver pinned behind semi
MINNEAPOLIS -- It was supposed to be a day for Dr. Ryan Fey to relax.
The Hennepin Healthcare trauma surgeon got out of the operating room early on July 20, so he drove out west of the Twin Cities to his farmland. He planned to check on his bees.
But has he was passing through Rockford on Highway 55, he witnessed a serious crash. A pickup truck slammed into the back of a semi carrying telephone poles. The wooden beams smashed through the truck's cab, pinning the driver inside.
"I was the car right behind 'em," Fey said.
The doctor rushed to help, initially reassuring the driver that he was going to be OK, even though he was seriously wounded.
"The last thing we needed him to do was panic," Fey said.
Emergency crews sawed off the telephone poles and took apart the truck while Fey helped stabilize the man's breathing and attended to his bleeding wounds. He also suggested where the medical helicopter could land.
"As they were getting ready and loading him in the helicopter, I was able to call the surgeon who was [at Hennepin Healthcare]," Fey said.
The man hurt in the crash is recovering at the downtown Minneapolis hospital. The doctors treating him are Fey's colleagues.
"He's got a long recovery road ahead of him," Fey said. "Head injury, neck injuries, chest injuries...the arm that he lost."
It wasn't be an easy road, but it's possible due to a little luck.
"Considering how horrific that crash was, it couldn't have gone better," Fey said.
The doctor says the man is out of the ICU and no longer needs a ventilator.
