By Brian Lee
The Telegram and Gazette
CHARLTON, Mass. — Sarah T. Dunaj was headed to Cape Cod with her family Thursday morning when she noticed that emergency responders had not yet arrived at the scene of a crash on the other side of the Massachusetts Turnpike.
Mrs. Dunaj, a 31-year-old nurse from Ludlow who had given birth two weeks ago, had her husband stop the vehicle so she could help with any injuries in the traffic-stopping, two-car accident reported at 10:36 a.m.
“My husband pulled over and I just jumped the rail,” Mrs. Dunaj said.
A neuroscience nurse at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Mrs. Dunaj saw the driver of a crashed Chevrolet Lumina, identified by state police as 30-year-old Joseph Tellier of Rhode Island, on the ground.
“He kept trying to get up and he possibly had neck or back injuries, so I told two onlookers to make sure that they stabilized his neck. They kept him straight and flat.
“Then he mentioned he had a son,” the nurse continued. “He didn’t know where he was. He kept asking about him, so I went over to the son and realized he needed some help.” The boy was also on the ground.
The nurse said she initiated CPR. Police had a defibrillator and the boy’s pulse was detected. An EMT, more police and a firetruck arrived. “It was getting crowded. That’s where my part ended,” Mrs. Dunaj said.
Mr. Tellier, who was partially ejected, and the boy were seriously injured, state police said. Both were taken to UMass Memorial Medical Center - University Campus. The boy was taken by a medical helicopter and Mr. Tellier was taken by Auburn Fire Department ambulance.
A hospital spokeswoman said yesterday Mr. Tellier’s family requested the facility not give out information about his condition.
“I hope he’s going to make it,” Mrs. Dunaj said of the boy.
Managing the turnpike wasn’t as dangerous as it sounded, the nurse said. Their car was in slow-moving, left-lane traffic, which allowed her husband, Philip J. Dunaj, to pull over near the median. The other side of the highway was “unofficially blocked off” because of the accident, Mrs. Dunaj said.
“There were just some slow-moving cars passing in the breakdown lane,” she said. “There were a couple of cars pulled over in that lane, too. One guy was helping me give breaths with the CPR.”
It was a first-of-a-kind response for Mrs. Dunaj.
“I’m not an ER nurse, so I definitely don’t usually see people in that condition,” she said. “But I have had to do other life-saving methods. But it’s just so different in the hospital. I’ve never had that experience outside the hospital. It was very emotional afterward.”
A state police spokesman said yesterday the two-car accident, which occurred just west of the Charlton Service Plaza, remains under investigation.
Mr. Tellier’s car was in the far left lane when a tire blew out, a preliminary investigation by Trooper Gerry Johnson indicates.
The Lumina veered to the right. Mr. Tellier tried to correct himself and the car veered back into the left lane.
A Ford Escape driven by 67-year-old Ronald Fleury of Peabody struck the Lumina’s left rear-quarter panel. The Lumina came to rest in the center travel lane and the Escape came to rest in the left lane.
Mr. Fleury was uninjured.
All three lanes were closed for about 15 minutes and the westbound left and center lanes were closed about 2-1/2 hours, state police said.
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