For most people Aug. 30 was a lazy Sunday afternoon spent with family or friends. But for Fort Knox Community Relations Officer John Campbell and his family, it was a day that brought them closer together.
Campbell, a retired Army first sergeant and cavalry scout, was on his way home with his wife and daughters from a baby shower in Louisville when the family came upon a deadly accident on U.S. 31 near Katharine Station Road.
They were the first vehicle on the scene, and once they stopped, his wife, Vickie, went to one vehicle and he said he went to the other.
When she got to the first vehicle Vickie, who is a certified medical assistant, evaluated the occupants and when she saw they were breathing and responsive, started checking for injuries.
As Vickie sat by, monitored the passengers for any changes and tried to keep them calm, John was dealing with a different situation.
"I looked through the window and noticed the driver was slumped and crushed down in her seat, and I immediately could tell that she was not responsive and not breathing," he remembered.
The passenger of that vehicle was about 15-years old, John said, and was awake and responsive, so he asked a couple of bystanders to help move the passenger out of the vehicle and away from the scene so they could get to the driver.
After checking the driver's basic vitals, John knew he was right but because she was slumped so far down in the seat he couldn't get to her to start CPR.
"My wife ran to my truck and got one of the girls' softball bats and we used that to break the windows of the vehicles to gain access," John remembered.
The other motorist who stopped, Brandon Rule, helped John start chest compressions and rescue breathing.
"We did this until the EMT showed up, with me breathing for her and him applying chest compressions through the window," he explained. "Once the EMT arrived, he took over with the breathing with a mask, and since I was in the best position to assist, I stayed with the chest compressions."
It would be another 10-15 minutes before more medical personnel arrived, and tried to remove the door with the "jaws of life." But after checking for a pulse in a number of locations, and listening to see if she was breathing on her own the pair was told to stop with the CPR.
"I went over to my vehicle where my daughters had stayed during all this and I started to cry because I knew that she was gone at that point," he said. "My daughters were crying, I told them I did everything I could but the lady had passed, and we consoled each other with a hug and a kiss."
John's next actions were also something that one would expect from an noncommissioned officer--he went back around to everyone he had just worked with to make sure they were OK. As for the retired first sergeant, he had cuts on his feet from the glass on the road--John had been wearing flip flops and they kept sliding off due to the gas and oil spill on the pavement.
The lesson, as tragic as it was, was not lost on the Campbell family. He said he told his daughters the first thing to do is to always make sure everyone at an accident scene is breathing, and if someone isn't they become your priority.
"They saw what I was doing and understood that I was breathing for her," he explained. "They have now had a first-hand account and seen what to do in case they are ever in that type of situation. I felt that I tried everything I could to save her life and I am hopeful that the other passengers are well and have a speedy recovery."
May Giulitto, the Red Cross director for service to the armed forces, said CPR and first aid are life skills everyone should have.
"Every day someone has a heart attack, or are in an accident, get hurt playing sports or choke on food or something, and knowing first aid and CPR allows you to save a life," she said. "Disasters don't happen every day but when they do we can all be equipped to help save a life then too."
She said that while no classes are scheduled for Fort Knox, they are regularly held in E'town and Louisville. Anyone interested in attending a class, or scheduling one can call 1-800-Red Cross.
John said that the training he received while in the Army, which included basic first aid, combat lifesavers course, as well as an EMT certification helped him while on deployment to Bosnia and when in combat in Iraq. It was these experiences and training that better prepared him to take charge of a situation like that, he added.
"My mind, after the accident, went for some reason to my two Soldiers that I lost," John said. "I remembered kissing one on the forehead after he passed while in the doctor's care in Baghdad, and the other one being given CPR by one of my Soldiers after they brought him into the aid station from a patrol where his vehicle rolled over into a canal and he drowned before they could get him out. Both of these memories come often but they really hit me hard which I think is why my daughters and I cried for a few minutes after."
He said he hasn't really told his daughters too much about those experiences in his life but feels they are getting old enough to know now. He added that he thinks they saw and learned a valuable lesson and they even told him that they wished they could have got out of the truck and helped, but they knew that he was doing all that could be done.
John said Vickie was a vital part of keeping the situation under control, and their children watched her do amazing things that day.
Call it "paying it forward" or call it "looking out for your fellow person" but John said if the situation was ever reversed he prays that someone wouldn't just drive past him or his family but would stop to do all they could to save them.
"I hope that my daughters saw that from Vickie and me," he added. "It's a very valuable lesson in my book."
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