LAKEWOOD, Colo. — An EMT student and aspiring paramedic saw a car crash as she was heading home from a class, and extricated a 10-year-old boy from the vehicle.
Jennifer Knight, an EMT student at Red Rocks Community College, stayed with the boy, Luke, until emergency responders arrived. The boy’s mother, 51-year-old Kimberly Henderson, did not survive, KUSA reports.
Knight, who was first on the scene, ran to the SUV and cut the boy out of his seat. He was stuck upside down, still buckled in,
“Very few things in life prepare you for such a tragic accident,” Knight said. “It was like a movie-scene. The car was upside down and you just don’t even have time to react, you just do it. Something takes over and you just go for it.”
Lakewood Police said the crash was caused Andrew Huerena, the driver of a black Ford Focus who was distracted by a passenger fiddling with the radio, and he lost control of his vehicle. He collided with a with Henderson’s SUV. The impact sent it off the road and across light rail tracks before it rolled several times and fell more than 12 feet, landing upside down.
Huerena, of Denver, was charged with careless driving causing bodily injury and death.
“The whole situation was emotional, devastating,” Knight said. “As a mother, it hit close to home.”
After extricating Luke, Knight stayed with the boy until responders arrived.
“He asked me if he would ever see me again—or if he could find me or go with me—and I told him ‘I will find you’” Knight said.
She visited him in the hospital during his recovery, and he is now back home with his father.
“Luke changed my life actually, so it was very nice to be able to help him,” Knight said. “I’ll never forget him or his family.”