180th Member Helps Save A Life

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Annette Kornasiewicz
  • 180th Public Affairs
Aprl 2009 --  Staff Sgt. Carl V. Stahl, III, Security Forces member, received a Red Cross Certificate of Recognition at their Toledo Chapter March 11, 2009 for "Extraordinary Personal Action" for providing self-aid buddy care to a man injured in an automobile accident that occurred in 2007. 

It was shortly after midnight on July 21, 2007. Stahl was leaving a restaurant when he witnessed a high-speed accident involving three vehicles on West Alexis Road in Toledo, Ohio, he said. A van struck the rear of one car, which then swerved and hit another vehicle head-on. Stahl turned to a friend and told him to call 911, as he jumped into his car to stop traffic on the very busy street. 

"The cars were smoking heavily and I feared they would catch on fire," said Stahl. 

Stahl checked on the driver of one vehicle, and it was obvious the man was suffering from two compound, complex fractures of his lower right leg. The man also had an injury to his hand and was bleeding. Stahl said he used towels to control the bleeding in both areas, then applied direct pressure to the victim's femoral artery to slow the bleeding to his leg. 

"I continued to talk to him and keep him alert," said Stahl, while he and another bystander covered the man to keep him from going into shock. 

When Toledo Fire and Rescue crews arrived at the scene, they asked Stahl to continue his efforts to control the bleeding of the man's lower leg as they worked to stabilize the patient. 

"I squatted by the victim while continuing to keep direct pressure. Broken glass shards were everywhere. I was kneeling on the passenger seat and had lacerated my knees with the glass there," said Stahl. Stahl helped the paramedics splint the wounded leg and extract the man from the car, and stayed with the victim
he was transported to a local hospital. 

"I didn't get nervous the entire time," said Stahl. "I just kept thinking about what would happen if I didn't act." 

Perhaps Stahl learned how to keep cool in tense situations from his past experiences. He was a police officer for the Village of Elmore and Washington Township before coming to the 180th, and has also been deployed as a Marine to Kuwait, Somalia, and also supported Desert Shield/Desert Storm. 

"We are all very proud of him," said Senior Master Sgt. John Rodgers, Operations Superintendent of Security Forces.

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