‘We did what we had to do, and we got lucky’

WASILLA - Quick response and a bit of luck provided an early Christmas gift for one Anchorage family last week.

It was a normal deadline day Dec. 22 at the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman - until a man ran in the front door and asked someone to call 911. But when office manager Joanne Briceland picked up the phone to place the call, she didn't know the details of what John E. Buckley, 45, needed.

While Briceland waited for the dispatcher to pickup, circulation manager Doris Armstrong and photographer Robert DeBerry saw Bumilckley down on the ground and ran out the front door, down the steps, across the snow-covered lawn to the printing plant parking lot.

DeBerry said he only jumped the handrail between the two buildings because he was following Armstrong and she had vaulted the rail first.

"I hit autopilot about the time Robert said we jumped the railing," Armstrong said Thursday.

In his room at Mat-Su Regional Hospital Tuesday, Buckley told DeBerry he remembers seeing he and Armstrong hurdle the handrail. Buckley also remembers DeBerry slapping his face repeatedly when he would begin to lose consciousness.

The call for help reached dispatchers about 3 p.m., Dec. 22 and Alaska State Troopers and Mat-Su Central Fire Department arrived to help a few minutes later.

When Laura Cox, who works in advertising, heard a man had cut off his hand, she grabbed her scarf to use for a tourniquet and ran outside.

"I just hope someone would do the same for me," she said.

Cox said it was ordinary on-the-job mom training that taught her to respond swiftly and calmly in an emergency.

Armstrong agreed.

"My kid was on a first-name basis with the emergency room staff for years," she said. "We did what we had to do and we got lucky."

When Armstrong, Cox and DeBerry reached Buckley's side, DeBerry used his belt and Cox' scarf and put both on the injured arm to stem the bleeding.

"What you did yesterday was heroic," Terry Umatum, Alaska Manager for Sales and Operations for American Fast Freight told DeBerry Dec. 23. "That tourniquet saved his life."

Umatum stopped by the Frontiersman at Buckley's request. He asked Umatum to stop by to shake DeBerry's hand and thank him.

Buckley is frank about what the help means for him and his family.

"Doctors told me that guy saved my life," Buckley said. "If it wasn't for you people over there I would have been dead."

Damage to Buckley's right arm was severe and doctors had to amputate a few inches below the elbow.

An employee with Labor Ready, Buckley was assisting drivers for American Fast Freight in freeing a semi truck stuck on a small hill.

According to Alaska State Troopers, Buckley's arm became stuck in the drive wheels of the semi while attempting to hold a chain in place for traction.

Buckley is from Anchorage and his family had initially planned to transfer him from Mat-Su Regional Medical Center to an Anchorage hospital for care. But the care was so professional and personal at Mat-Su Regional they stayed in the Valley with doctors Susan Dean and William V. Gardner.

"These people have been wonderful to us," said Jamie Bidwell, Buckley's girlfriend. "Anything we need, they are on it."

Mom Laurie Adams said spending Christmas at Mat-Su Regional wasn't what the family had planned, but it was better by a mile than burying her son, she said.

"If it hadn't been for you, he wouldn't even be here," Adams told DeBerry Tuesday at the hospital. "You are a hero in our eyes."

Contact Heather A. Resz at heather.resz@frontiersman.com or 352-2268.