Boy Bridges Language Barrier at Ariz. Bus Crash

PHOENIX --

An 11-year-old boy who is recovering from injuries he suffered in an Arizona bus accident that killed six people and injured 16 others is being praised for helping bridge the language barrier between patient and rescuer.

Gila River firefighters Jeffery Thomas and Kenneth Leslie were on their way to meet Oscar Rodriguez on Saturday.

“I can’t even go on about how this kid helped us,” Thomas said in the lobby of the Maricopa Medical Center.

When the men were called to a bus roll-over crash along Interstate 10 on Friday, six people were already dead and helping others proved more difficult than either could imagine.

“We started going into the front of the bus and that’s when we realized they were mostly Spanish speaking only,” Thomas said referring to victims.

Barley able to communicate, the scene quickly grew chaotic. Medics set up a triage area in the middle of the interstate, and medical helicopters landed on the road to airlift the most critically injured to area hospitals. In the middle of it all, a young boy was alone.

“I went to get more equipment and I saw a little boy standing there and I asked him if he was OK and he told me he was cold,” Thomas said.

Thomas put Rodriguez in the front of an ambulance, covered him with a blanket and turned the heat on.

Leslie rolled a critically injured man into the back where Oscar noticed the fireman was unable to communicate. That’s when the little boy from Las Vegas chimed in and bridged the language barrier between patient and rescuer.

“We were effectively able to not only go through our entire treatment process but get an accurate patient history so this immediate patient could be flown to a hospital with a flight crew in a more efficient way,” Leslie said.

“It was amazing that an 11-year-old, who was probably going through the most traumatic thing of his life was sitting there and helping us translate,” Thomas said.

A few minutes later the cold wasn’t the only pain bothering Oscar, he’d broken several ribs and was flown to the Maricopa Medical Center.

Saturday afternoon Thomas and Leslie reunited with their fellow rescuer where Oscar was presented with a “Hero of the Day” certificate and helmet from the Gila River fire Department.

“People say we’re heroes. No we’re not. That little guy is the hero,” Thomas said.

Oscar’s sister and father were also injured in the accident. Both are expected to recover.

Four other victims are still in critical condition.

Friday's crash occurred about 5:30 a.m. on the Gila River Indian Reservation near the community of Sacaton, some 25 miles south of downtown Phoenix.

Both westbound lanes of I-10 were closed for several hours near the scene of the crash.

The bus was operating illegally, a Department of Transportation statement said.

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