Sgt. Michael Wazelle; saving the world one person at a time

From Army.mil comes the story of Sgt. Michael Wazelle, a recruiter at the Sacramento Recruiting Battalion who happened upon an accident and took immediate action;

Wazelle noticed that the driver [of an overturned truck] had not been wearing a seatbelt and had been tossed around the cab during the crash. “He had lacerations on his face and hands, he also had a large bump and about a four-inch long gash on the back of his head,” said Wazelle. “He was incoherent and couldn’t even tell me what month it was.”

Wazelle said he did what he could for the driver. “I’m pretty sure he had a concussion and was definitely in shock,” said Wazelle. “I just did my best to keep him immobilized and make him comfortable.” The basic first-aid helped, as Wazelle said that the driver slowly was able to relax a little and became more coherent by the time paramedics arrived.

Once the paramedics were on scene, Wazelle continued to help out by keeping the driver’s neck immobilized. Since the driver was also a “rather large man,” Wazelle helped the paramedics get him out of the truck and onto a board and then helped carry him from the awkwardly positioned truck and ditch.

When asked if he felt that his military training gave him an edge to stop and help, Wazelle replied, “Definitely.”

This was not the first time Wazelle has had to apply military-taught emergency first aid. He has had to call upon his Army training to apply first-aid to fellow soldiers in the field while he was deployed to Iraq.

Category: Support the troops