DES MOINES, Iowa —
An Iowa man met the medical team and first responders who saved his life one week ago after he suffered traumatic injuries from a tractor accident.
Kevin Heckethorn, a resident of Milton, says he doesn't remember much about May 13. All he knows is that he was riding his tractor when he fell off and was run over by a brush cutter. He lost both of his legs.
Heckethorn was able to call 911 and his wife. Eleven minutes later, first responders showed up to his rural property in southern Iowa.
"First responders from Moravia and the Moravia firefighters responded with a side by side," fire Chief Ryan Moore said.
Moore said the crew's response time was fast that day, considering it's an all-volunteer department. Once they arrived, they quickly put on tourniquets and stopped life-threatening bleeding.
The MercyOne AirMed team picked Heckethorn up and flew him to MercyOne Medical Center in Des Moines. It was about a 20-minute flight, and when he landed, the hospital was ready to receive him.
"He's so lucky he had someone watching over him," Tara Taylor, trauma program manager, said. "We had all the crews in the right place at the right time."
Heckethorn got to meet those first responders and medical personnel who played an instrumental role in keeping him alive in some of the worst moments of his life.
"It is a very emotional time when somebody saves your life," he said. "When it takes a team like this to do it, it's a big deal."
He thanked everyone in the room. In return, those people said they were grateful to get to see the progress Heckethorn has made in just one week.
"Sometimes you don't know the outcome of the patient, but it is just so healing for everybody along the way," Taylor said.
Heckethorn will begin rehab this week.
Appanoose County, where the accident happened, was among the first five counties in the state to make emergency medical services an essential service. Voters there approved a tax levy to fund EMS countywide. The fire chief said that funding played a critical role in saving Heckethorn's life.
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