Our Story

This is the ongoing story of, well, everything. I hope to get different perspectives from people who want to share them and put those here. 

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From a Dad's perspective- To be honest, I am going to put down my view of the story, but I am going to leave some of it just for me. Maybe I will add all of it someday. We have had to deal with a lot of lies, and Falsehoods after the accident that I may also address down the 

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Saturday, February 18th, 2023 11:37 am 

I look at my phone it's a text from Abigail " I didn't mean to call you," I text back immediately. "OK"

A few minutes later, I got a call from my Wife. "Ryan and Abbi were in a wreck. I am going there,"  I ask her where it is?, and once she tells me, "I respond that it's in Springfield Twp still," trying to give her an idea of how far down the particular road it is. I recently retired in January as the career Fire/EMS Chief in Springfield Twp. I had received a heart transplant a few years previously due to complications from heat, smoke, and chemicals during my career. It was a rough decision to retire. Firefighting was the family business between my dad and brothers; also, on the Job, I had spent my entire life in a firehouse. I was looking forward to retirement with my family but more so with my two youngest, whom I knew I still had a few young years left to spend with. My oldest daughter would be turning 18 soon and doing her own thing. 

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I had plans to go to the local gun show and try to find Abigail a Youth shotgun. I was also going with a friend to look in Northern Ohio to look at M1 Garand's a historical military rifle used by the US during World War II and Korea mainly and other conflicts and countries later on. My buddy and I decided to go North first. So my son Ryan and Abigail went fishing. 

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When I got the call from my Wife, I was a few hours away. I was still on the dispatch system for the Fire department, so when they were dispatched, I got the call details . At 11:41 am, my phone alert goes off. I looked at the dispatch call that came across my phone. Female not conscious, Not breathing. The caller stated that the female was pinned under the tire. I immediately called Abigail's phone no answer. I called my Wife back and confirmed the location with her. She was already on the way. She had gotten the location and wreck alert from the Life360 we have on the kid's phones. I didn't tell her the dispatch information, knowing she was already upset and driving at a high rate of speed. I stayed on the phone with her. She beat the Fire department there. My Wife is a nurse. We talked through a few things, we discussed our son's status, and he was up and walking around the scene. Ryan had been trying to lift the Jeep off Abigail. She had been ejected and landed face first with the Jeep landing on Abigail. My Wife screams to me on the phone, " Abbi is dead, Matt, I don't feel a pulse" I told her the Fd was on the way, and we talked about how she was located under the vehicle. I immediately think to myself, " Damn it, she didn't have her seatbelt on" I am always yelling at her about her seatbelt. Abigail, out of all my kids, always was the one I constantly was yelling at about her seatbelt. 

I told my Wife that I was going to call the Assistant Chief to tell him what was going on so they knew. I could now hear sirens in the background on my Wife's phone. The assistant chief answers, and I explain who, what, and location details to him. 

Being a Paramedic, I know there are a lot of things we can do in the Field, and had confidence they would do them. We can manage cardiac arrest, even trauma arrest, in the field very effectively. I was still far away at this point. I immediately called both of my brothers, both also Career firefighters. My brother Mark was off that day, and I explained everything to him, including the dispatch details. He said he would head towards the scene. I then called my brother Mike who was on duty at his fire job a few counties over. He said he would get his shift covered and head to the hospital.

Once I knew that my kids had arrived at the local trauma center in Mansfield, I called the Assistant Chief to see what he could tell me I was still about forty-five minutes away.

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"Adam, I know she didn't have a pulse I'm not stupid tell me the fucking truth, what's all gong on?."

He went over the details of them putting the airbags down to get her untrapped and then working her in the Medic to the hospital. We discussed injuries and how she was located under the Jeep. They had been able to get a pulse back in the Medic on the way to the hospital. He said they were working on her in the Trauma room still as we spoke. 

 

I got to the hospital in Mansfield, and people in the hospital already knew who and what I was there for. I had been retired for several weeks and had already grown a beard, and was surprised anyone recognized me.

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