Three men honored for saving coworker’s life
By Savannah Lee
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NEVADA, Iowa (KCCI) — A shirt for a knotted pressure dressing and a belt and screwdriver for a makeshift tourniquet are the things that three men used to help save the life of a coworker.
Back on Sept. 3, Stefan Luppen, Drake McKeever and Nolan Stoahl, employees at Mid-States Companies, said they simply acted on pure instinct when a coworker slipped a piece of steel out of his hand and cut his arm.
“As soon as we saw how bad it was, there was no hesitation on jumping into action and making sure he was taken care of,” Nolan Stoahl, manufacturing coordinator at Mid-States Companies, said.
The patient had suffered from a five-inch laceration to the right bicep, just nearly missing a major artery, leaving him struggling to stay conscious while waiting for first responders.
“We didn’t know exactly how bad it was initially with his hand over the injury,” Drake McKeever, a machine lead at Mid-States Companies, said. “Once he moved his hand around and the amount of blood that came out of his arm, I think that was more of the instinct of, ‘OK, this needs to be sealed up now rather than waiting until we had somebody come and bring us the right equipment.'”
In the roughly 20 minutes it took for first responders to arrive, McKeever, who was next to the patient when the incident happened, immediately tore the shirt off his back to apply pressure.
Luppen, also a volunteer EMT, used his nylon belt and screwdriver to control the bleeding with a makeshift tourniquet. Stoahl tracked down first responders when they arrived and led them to the scene.
“I mean, it’s just you do what you can with what you got,” Luppen said. “The belt I wear is mainly for that reason, hoping never to use it that way, but it kind of panned out; glad it’s what I was wearing.”
Chris Brandes, public safety director and Nevada chief of police, says if it wasn’t for these measures, things could’ve ended a lot worse.
“Obviously, any bleeding to an extremity could be a loss of life due to that lower blood pressure and loss of volume,” Brandes said. “So, delaying or slowing that bleed initially is critical.”
Brandes said that LifeFlight was requested, but due to inclement weather, they weren’t able to get to Nevada. He added that if the men didn’t take the measures they took, with LifeFlight unable to assist, it could’ve turned deadly.
That’s why on Monday night, the three men were awarded a Life Saving Award at the Nevada City Council meeting, the first ones in the city in over three years.
“I mean obviously I knew it was pretty serious, but it kind of puts it in perspective as how serious it was,” Luppen said.
“It was a team effort, but I don’t think we could have possibly done as good as we did without all of us,” McKeever said.
The patient was transported to Mercy One in Des Moines, where he underwent surgery. They are currently recovering.
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