BOONE, Iowa — A paramedic with significant injuries fought to save her patient and an ambulance driver on Thursday following a crash in Boone County.
Rescue crews arriving at the scene said the paramedic, Wendy Baker, told them her co-worker in the back of the ambulance was dead. Baker then continued to move back and forth treating the patient in the back of the ambulance as well as the driver.
“She was working so hard I had to physically remove her from the ambulance scene because she didn’t want to give up her patients,” said Boone County Deputy Brian Pontius. “I don’t even know her name.”
Officials said the patient in the ambulance died as well as the nurse in the back of the ambulance. The nurse, Sheryl Stoolman, 53, had worked at the hospital in Carroll for more than 26 years.
Officials said Stoolman had volunteered to ride to the hospital with the patient.
“We originally tried to have Life Flight come out and take the patient out, but for an hour and a half, they couldn’t manage to come, so a decision was made to take the patient by ground transport,” said St. Anthony Regional Hospital President Gary Riedmann. “They just had a tragic accident with a semi-truck.”
Officials said the ambulance ran into the back of the semi tractor-trailer as the vehicles rolled down Highway 30 near the town of Beaver at 11:26 a.m. The roadway was closed in both directions as multiple rescue crews worked to move the victims to hospitals.
“The semi driver was going to make a turn,” Deputy Pontius said. “He checked his mirrors to make that turn. He realized the ambulance was behind him running red lights and pulled to the right. The unfortunate part was the ambulance saw the semi and he also pulled to the right and they hit each other. The ambulance hit the back of the semi.”
The ambulance driver was flown by air ambulance to Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines.
Officials said the ambulance was taking a patient in critical condition from the St. Anthony Regional Hospital in Carroll to a Des Moines hospital.
“In an ambulance situation, the personnel in the back don’t wear seat belts because they were attending to a patient,” Pontius said.
Riedmann said Stoolman died doing what she loved.
“She spent her last moments taking care of patients and doing what she did well,” he said.
In addition to Stoolman, Norbert Hoffman, 75, of Carroll, died in the crash.
Wendy Baker, 45, of Carroll, and Robert Genzen, 46, of Manning, were injured. The driver of the semi, Dennis Good, 49, of Ogden, did not have serious injuries.
Witnesses said the Carroll County ambulance’s entire engine compartment and cab were completely crushed.
The paramedic is recovering at the Greene County Medical Center in Jefferson. The Carroll County Sheriff said she is doing well.
Carroll County EMS Director Bill Fish said the entire community is in mourning.
“It’s one close-knit family throughout the entire county and when it affects us so deeply here, it affects the entire community,” he said.
The crash investigation will likely be turned over to the Iowa State Patrol.
Republished with permission from KCC1.com