Members of Ellijay Hope Lutheran Church showed their appreciation to the county’s emergency response personnel last week following a car accident that recently took place near the church.
The complimentary lunch for all local police, fire and rescue and 911 dispatch employees was held at the Old Highway 5 South church Thursday.
“These people do amazing things every day in our community,” said Pastor Dave Smedley about Gilmer County’s emergency response agencies.
Carolyn Hill was among those preparing for a January Bible study at the Hope Lutheran Fellowship Hall when something unusual happened.
“It was about 1:30 in the afternoon. We were just sitting there, and (one of the guys) said, ‘A car just zipped by.’ I could tell he was taken aback,” said Hill. “I thought, a car? There’s only about 50 feet max back there (behind the church) for them to go!”
Hill looked out the door, but didn’t see or hear anything strange at first. As she neared a wooded area with a steep dropoff behind the church, she began to see a car driven by a fellow church member who’d been en route to the Bible study. The vehicle had flipped and was upside down in the hollow.
(The church asked that the name of the woman, who’s still recovering from her injuries, not be included).
“The car had hit a tree. It was over the edge (several feet down) and the engine was still running,” Hill said. “She was kind of hanging over a ledge.”
Hill quickly called 911, and in a few minutes emergency response units began arriving. Hill, a former trauma unit nurse for Atlanta’s Grady Memorial Hospital, said she’s usually not affected by traumatic scenes, but it was different this time. This was outside the confines of the ER, where she used to attend to patients, and the injured person was someone she knows.
“Once you do that (job), you never lose your ability to look at the clock and know it’s your enemy, and that’s what you’re fighting when you get to the ER. But I was so impressed with how the emergency services responded. They were absolutely awesome,” Hill said. “Nobody asked what they should do or if they needed this or that. They knew what to do. Today, they can do so much more for (patients) out in the field, and the standards are so much better. When they airlifted her out, they knew she had multiple fractures and the extent of her injuries.”
Jason Bryant, Gilmer County deputy fire chief, was among the fire and rescue personnel who responded to the call. A rope system had to be rigged up to get the driver up the hill and to safety, he noted.
“Anytime something is down an embankment, especially with somebody injured, that creates problems, but we were able to get people down to her, get to the car and do an extrication using tools,” Bryant said. “It took a lot of people to get it done, and everyone did an amazing job.”
Smedley said this was the first time the church had done an appreciation event for local emergency responders, which was well-deserved.
“We were so impressed with all of them. They did a wonderful job, and we just wanted to honor them,” Hill added.
The luncheon saw a strong in-person turnout from multiple local fire and police agencies and the Georgia State Patrol, which also responded to the call. The church also offered takeout plates for those unable to attend in person.
Bryant said the lunch was appreciated by all the fire and rescue staff members and a good opportunity for fire and police employees to gather outside of responding to the same calls.
“We don’t get to hang out together like that very often. It was really nice of the church to do this, and we greatly appreciate it. It’s always great to get out into the community (like this),” he added.
The wooded area where the car landed is not a place that members of the church pass by regularly. Had no one been in the basement fellowship hall or sitting near a window when the car went by that day, the outcome of the accident could’ve been much worse, noted Smedley.
“Had she come earlier and all that had happened, nobody would’ve known (an accident even occurred),” he said.