Thursday, January 17, 2008

Am I a Hero?


Josh Simpson and I are sitting in his office (my old office) meeting about some Student Ministries issues yesterday when we hear a loud crashing sound. We hear this sound quite a bit in Student Ministries because the intersection outside always has accidents. We rushed outside to see one car across the street smashed into a pole. The other is backwards in the middle of the road with the whole front-end smashed in. Airbags are deployed in both cars. There was that one-second of "What do I do now?" But then we just went for it. Josh went to the car across the street and I went to the one in the middle. There was just one man in the car. I look in the window and try to signal to him, "Are you OK?" He doesn't say anything and looks really disoriented. I open the door while glancing to Josh and his two guys are getting out of their car sort of wobbly.

After the door is opened, the man is coughing from all the airbag dust. He is trying to get out and I say, "Wait a minute. How is your neck? Are you hurt?" He says that he is OK. Another man who witnessed the accident is on his phone and I confirm that he is calling 911. Then we notice that there is gasoline and other liquids flowing out of the car. So I say, "Alright, let's get you out of here." I help him get out and lead him to the curb and tell him to sit down and take it easy. I was hoping for an explosion at this point where we could dive away from the fireball to safety. That would have been sweet, but no fire.

He starts saying that he needs to call his dentist because he was on the way to an appointment - definitely disoriented. I check him out a bit more and he is hurting real bad, but no major gashes. Josh's guy had a cut on his head. Before Matt could even get back with some towels, the firemen had already arrived. They were really fast. We told them who was involved in the accident and then they took over.

Am I a hero? It's all part of the job.

Have you ever had any experiences like that?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

You have been a hero to me from the day you came into our daughter's live!!
M O M

Doug Brown said...

your only a hero because you blogged about it.

Anonymous said...

Do heroes have to be humble?? If so, I'm going to say that blogging about yourself cancels out any heroic actions. Sorry... better luck next time ;)

Eric Wakeling said...

Thank you. I know now that I truly am a hero. But only to my mother-in-law.

Anonymous said...

LOL, you wished that it would blow up into flames.....

Anonymous said...

who needs Jack Bower or James Bond when I have you babe?

Eric Wakeling said...

Bea - if you are going to mention the heroic Jack Bauer, at least spell his name correctly? The way you spelled it is highly offensive.