To the rescue: Combat training helps Travis reservist save a life

  • Published
  • By Ellen Hatfield
  • 349th Public Affairs
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  It was the end of his unit training assembly weekend at Travis Air Force Base, Aug. 24, 2014, Master Sgt. Russ Wooten, 79th Air Refueling Squadron first sergeant, was headed home down Route 12 toward Modesto. He had his truck on cruise control at the speed limit, watching the road ahead. Suddenly a car, traveling at a high rate of speed, crossed the double yellow line, and veered off and over, a 15-20 foot embankment into the weeds. Pulling over quickly, he watched in horror as the vehicle flipped end over end, went airborne, then flipped end over end again. "It was just like something out of a movie," he said.

As he climbed swiftly down the embankment, he expected to see bodies everywhere, but there were none. Seeing a man on the road, who also stopped, Wooten yelled, "Call 911," and tried to see inside the car, which was still running, and smoking. Joined by the other rescuer, they peered inside for occupants, and realized they had to get them out, and fast, as the car could ignite any minute.

Just then, the occupant, who was the driver, broke the glass open in his sunroof. Wooten asked if the driver had any neck or back pain; when he said no, the two rescuers wasted no time pulling him through the sunroof to safety. "As we pulled him out, to our relief, the car suddenly stopped running, and smoking," said Wooten.

Although it seemed like 15 minutes, at this point, they were only about 90 seconds into the scene. Laying the driver on the ground, Wooten did a quick assessment, and saw that his foot was almost severed about three or four inches above the ankle.

"I don't want to tell you this, but I have a combat tourniquet in my Air Force emergency kit, and I'm running to get it, because you need it," he said. Recalling the Self Aid/Buddy Care classes he taught at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Georgia, he applied the tourniquet, and started twisting, saying in his head, "three twists." With the third twist, the victim started screaming, so he backed it off to two. "If you start bleeding again, I've got to twist again," he said. At that point he and his fellow rescuer realized more help had arrived. A nurse was coming down the embankment, with her constant companion - an emergency kit with a neck brace. Next, a man who turned out to be Tech. Sgt. Charles Johnson IV, 60th Aerial Port Squadron, yelled down, "Shirt! What do you need?" Another person had taken over traffic control, so he climbed down to the scene to assist.

Like Wooten, he's an SABC instructor, is trained to respond, and perhaps unlucky for him, but lucky for the victims, he has been on scene for several accidents, including a horrific boating accident, where someone fell overboard, and was run over by the motor. That victim had suffered six propeller strikes to his leg, and would have drown, or bled out, if Johnson hadn't rescued him.

"We take control. We're taught to plug the leaks, stabilize, and prepare for transport," he said. "Wooten and I were actually getting ready to splint the leg, looked at each other, and realized, we don't have to do that step." Wooten wrote the time of the tourniquet application, and other notes, on the victim's shorts, for the EMTs, who got there within 30 minutes. All his SABC and military training took over from the beginning, even though he said, "I've never seen anything like that in my life." He and Johnson assisted with getting the victim into the ambulance and on his way.

"The guy never lost consciousness, and pulled a cell phone out of his pocket, and started texting his friends." He doesn't think he was absorbing the gravity of his situation. On a business trip to Chicago for his civilian job the week after the accident, Wooten had trouble sleeping, waking up in the wee hours, wondering what he could have done better, or different. Then he realizes everything he did right, because of his Air Force training, and is glad he was in the wrong place, at the right time.

"Right now, I just want my combat tourniquet back," he said with a laugh.