By Matthew Thompson
Charleston Daily Mail (West Virginia)
Copyright 2007 Charleston Newspapers
Kanawha County Emergency Ambulance Authority employees Nicholas Painter and David Nuckols got a chance to say a final goodbye to their friend and colleague, paramedic Tennille Davis, before she passed away.
It was Sunday afternoon and the 30-year-old Davis was lying in a hospital bed with injuries sustained from a head-on car accident that happened Saturday near Racine in Boone County.
Painter, a registered nurse, and Nuckols, an emergency medical technician, had been Davis’ partners during the six years she worked at the ambulance authority.
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When word came that Davis’ situation was terminal, the two men were added to the list of immediate family members allowed to visit her.
Gary Davis, Tennille’s husband and a fellow paramedic, made the decision to let the men enter her room at Charleston Area Medical Center’s Memorial Hospital.
Although Davis was unable to speak, the 27-year-old Painter said having that final moment with his friend and colleague helped ease the pain of the sudden loss.
“It made me feel special,” Painter said. “It was nice to be allowed to have the closure and the ability just to say goodbye. It’s not everyday you see big boys like us just cry like babies.”
Nuckols, 26, said he is thankful to Gary Davis for giving him the opportunity to pay his final respects.
“Anybody else would not have made it a point to allow us to go back there and say our piece,” Nuckols said. “I’m glad we got to say goodbye.”
Davis was to be laid to rest today at a funeral service at the Charleston Civic Center Little Theatre. Her body was going to be transported to and from the service by a county ambulance.
On Saturday, Davis was on her way to a coalmine safety-training seminar, driving down Route 3 in Boone County. A Ford Explorer crossed the centerline and struck Davis’ Dodge Dakota pickup truck head on.
In addition to her husband, Davis leaves behind a daughter, Madeline, 5, and a son, Cayden, 3.
Painter and Nuckols said they got to know Davis during the countless 24-hour shifts each man shared with her.
Both men said Davis was physically a small woman, but her strong personality more than made up for what she lacked in size.
Nuckols stands 6 feet 1 inch tall while Painter stands at 5 feet 10 inches tall. The two men weigh over 600 lbs. combined.
“She had an uphill battle dealing with both of us,” Painter said. “She was only about 5-foot-3, and we would always offer to help her lift up the carts, but she’d always say she could do it.”
Fellow co-workers said they will remember Davis as a determined woman who would go out of her way to help and educate people.
In June, Davis was one of four employees designated as a field-training officer for the ambulance authority. The agency was the first one in the state to staff such a position.
The training officers accompany co-workers out in the field to determine what improvements can be made to respond better and more quickly to accidents and calls for service.
Davis sometimes taught safety courses up to three days a week. That was on top of her regular workweek, which sometimes amounted to 72 hours, her co-workers said.
Before she died, Davis was one-and-a-half training classes away from becoming a certified registered nurse.
Paramedic Jason Sergent had known Davis since she began her tenure at the authority. The 31-year-old Sergent was among the employees who spent Monday at the authority’s Brooks Street headquarters helping prepare for today’s memorial service.
“What we have lost as a family and from a community standpoint is just unbelievable,” Sergent said. “We have lost a good friend, a great co-worker and educator. The community has lost a great paramedic. It’s going to feel empty here for a long, long time,”
Paramedic Katie Berg said she would remember laughing each time Davis was late for work. Berg, 23, said the sound of Davis’ car hurriedly hitting the gravel parking lot became a daily occurrence and a running joke for co-workers.
“The last time I saw her at work she was 25 minutes early,” Berg said. “I joked around that my alarm clock must have been off because I just couldn’t believe it.”
Co-workers said Davis was an avid fan of Clementine oranges and would eat a box of fruit a day of while out on assignment.
She was also a frequent customer at Inta Juice, the Kanawha City smoothie store.
Berg said when Davis’ ambulance would pull into the store’s parking lot, employees there would have a drink waiting for her before she even got out of her car.
“She’s going to be missed,” Berg said. “Nothing will ever fill the void in this station.”
Deborah Baber, the driver of the Explorer that hit Davis’ car, survived the crash and was transported to CAMC’s General Hospital.
Boone County Sheriff Rodney Miller said police found empty bottles of methadone inside Baber’s car. Miller said his office expects to file charges against Baber pending the results of a blood test.
Baber also had two children, a one-year-old and an eight-year-old, in the car with her. They were transported to the hospital, treated and released, Miller said.