Letter: Thanks to Whidbey emergency personnel

Editor,

I would like to express my deepest thanks to the Whidbey emergency and rescue community.

On Oct. 20, I was out on my deck when I inadvertantly stepped through a rotten board. My right foot and leg went instantly through, pitching me forward in a terrible fall which shattered my right shoulder and badly damaged the soft tissue of my right leg, injuring my left leg as well. My husband was luckily in the house and heard my screams. He immediately called 911 and as he finished the cuts in the deck to free my leg the ambulance from Whidbey Health and the rescue team from Fire Station 32 in Langley arrived.

Five incredibly strong and capable, compassionate, fire and rescue personnel — three firemen and two emergency medical techs — carefully, as a perfect team held my broken shoulder together and lifted me up out of that hell-hole, loaded me onto a gurney and into the ambulance in unbelievably quick time. I believe they saved my life. I will never be able to thank them enough. But I’m going to try.

To Blake Benenoti, Chris Turner, and Eric Ensign, the firemen from Whidbey Fire Station 32,and the two EMTs from Whidbey Health, Craig who drove to the Coupeville Hospital and Eric who held me together all the way there, thank you, thank you, you were all so amazing. If I’ve gotten any of your names wrong I am sorry — I was out of my mind at the time with pain and may not have all the names exactly right.

To the Emergency Room staff at Whidbey Heath in Coupeville; the beautiful and skillful team of Michaela, Sade, Kate and all the other staff on duty that terrible day whose names I regretfully didn’t get, thank you, thank you — you helped me so much, putting me on the road to recovery in such an efficient, effective and kind manner.

To Ed, the brave ex-marine, and his lovely wife Pam, who were in the Emergency Room bay next to me, my heartfelt thanks for keeping my spirits up and calling out to the staff when my pain got so far ahead of me I couldn’t speak.

I am so grateful to be able to say we live on an island with world-class rescue and medical personnel. I thank God every day that here on Whidbey, there are heroes all around us.

Carolyn Lewis

Langley