City worker saves life of storm victim

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Although Steve Thomas typically spends the days following a winter storm plowing snow as part of his job with the Van Wert Street Department, this past Wednesday he also took on the job of rescuer when he likely saved the life of an elderly man who had fallen while trying to clear his sidewalks.

Thomas said he was using a city front-loader to clean the cul-de-sac on Heritage Court when he spotted a man lying on the ground in front of a residence on the street.

“At first I thought he was just working on a snowblower or something, but when I got closer there wasn’t anything there but him,” Thomas said. The seven-year Street Department veteran then got off the front-loader to see if the man was all right.

He wasn’t.

The 80-year-old city resident, who lived alone, had fallen and apparently broke his hip. Unable to get back up, he had been lying on the ground long enough that hypothermia had begun to set in. Although Thomas said the man wasn’t sure just how long he had been lying in front of his house, it was long enough that his body temperature had fallen about 7 degrees from the average temperature of 98 degrees, according to medics that arrived on the scene later to treat the man.

After finding the elderly man was suffering from hypothermia, Thomas managed to get him off the ground and over to his garage, where the city worker propped him up against the back of the man’s vehicle.

“He was shaking real bad,” Thomas said.

Because the man was so cold, Thomas took off his own coat and placed it around the man. The city street worker then called the Van Wert Police Department and had an EMS squad dispatched to the residence.

Because of the snow piled up in the man’s driveway, Thomas then got back on his front-loader and cleaned out the driveway so firefighters could get a gurney up to the garage and transport the man to the hospital for further treatment.

“I would do it for anybody,” Thomas said of his actions, adding that he hoped someone would stop if something similar happened to him when he got old.

His wife, Melissa, wasn’t so nonchalant about what her husband did.

“I think he is my hero and I’m very proud of him,” she said.

Fire Chief Jim Steele also praised the man’s actions.

“He did all the right things,” the chief noted.

Meanwhile, although Thomas has been spending long hours the last few days plowing city streets, he said he planned to go out to the hospital after work on Thursday to check on the man whose life he undoubtedly saved.