Recent EMT Course Helped North Carolina Man Aid Hiker
Grant Campbell, a Shelby landscaper, took an emergency medical technician course so he could help people if needed.
Grant Campbell, a Shelby landscaper, took an emergency medical technician course so he could help people if needed.
On Sunday, a day after he took the EMT exam, he helped rescue a woman who fell the equivalent of five stories down Crowders Mountain.
Dawn Bramson, a 29-year-old from Concord, was in critical condition late Monday at Carolinas Medical Center.
Campbell's training probably saved Bramson's life, said Mike Horne, chief of Crowders Mountain Volunteer Fire and Rescue Squad, who responded later along with other departments.
"When you're by yourself and injured, you get kind of hysterical," Horne said. "If he hadn't been up there, she might not have been as lucky. We might have been doing a body recovery."
Campbell and his wife followed Bramson's moans and screams Sunday evening, and found her lying on a rock, her jeans bloody and torn.
"Seeing three leg bones sticking out of someone's leg is almost surreal," said Campbell, 27.
Another hiker who had seen the woman fall called 911 while Campbell pulled out the first aid kit he always carries.
Bramson also had called 911 from her cell phone after falling about 5:30 p.m., screaming and taking deep, gasping breaths during most of the call. About five minutes later, Campbell found her, took the phone from her and provided a quick medical assessment.
The dispatcher reminded him to not move her.
"Just try to keep her calm, that's all you can do now," she said.
Campbell said he and his wife, Charlene, 28, prayed with Bramson, who kept asking for a helicopter and morphine. He wrapped her wounds with gauze, and when those became saturated with blood, he tore her sweatshirt to make more bandages and continued to apply pressure.
He knew it would take rescuers a long time to reach them because there was little to distinguish the area from other parts of the mountainside.
It took emergency personnel about 30 minutes to hike to the top of the mountain to begin the search. They began blowing whistles while Horne, the rescue squad chief, told Campbell by cell phone to start screaming.
Soon, the rescuers had moved close enough to hear Campbell and rappelled to where Bramson lay. It took 30 minutes to carry her down on a stretcher.
Campbell has no plans to become a professional EMT. He shrugs off praise for helping rescue her. "Considering the pain that this woman was in, she was the hero," he said.
