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Dayton man credited with saving young girl’s life
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| JOHN REYNOLDS |
By MIKE GEORGE
mgeorge@hcnonline.com
Dayton High School Ag teacher John Reynolds had evacuated up to Athens, Texas before Hurricane Ike to be with parents Ann and Billy Jack Reynolds, and during his stay wound up literally saving the life of a young girl at a fast food restaurant.
Reynolds explained that his parents live up in the Athens area and they had all gone to eat at the Whataburger in Athens on Monday, Sept. 15. After eating, they were sitting there when a couple of ladies came in. One was a young Spanish lady speaking very fluent English saying she needed help.
“I understood her to say she had a kid trapped in a car and she was looking for someone with a hammer to break a window,” said Reynolds. “I got up telling her to let me see what you’ve got, but as we were walking across the parking lot, I noticed the driver’s window was down on the small extended cab truck, which indicated the problem was not what I previously thought.”
Reynolds got quickly to the other side of the truck seeing that the young girl was literally up to her neck in big trouble. Somehow, the window had gone up with the child’s head on the outside of the glass and her body on the inside from the neck down.
Reynolds began working on getting the window down.
“I finally got it to give about two, maybe two-and-a-half inches,” reported Reynolds, “and I don’t know how I got the young lady’s head out of the window. I laid her down across the bucket seats in the front of the truck and started doing chest compressions.”
Reynolds continued the compressions while police showed up and kept it up until paramedics showed up and took over. The EMT’s immediately put her into their ambulance and transported her to the Athens Hospital.
“Then they transported her by lifeflight to a Dallas to a children’s hospital,” Reynolds explained. “Then we came home on Tuesday and Wednesday evening I got a phone call from the little girl’s mother saying that she was all right and at home.”
Reynolds explained that at the same time as he left the dining room with what turned out to be the babysitter, his wife, Valerie, knew from what the other lady was saying in Spanish that something was really wrong and took off after John.
“She came up and saw what was going on and I had her remove the two, or maybe it was three children who were in the back seat,” Reynolds added. “I really thought the little girl might already be dead and didn’t want those other kids to be in that kind of situation.”
Reynolds, actually a very quiet man, was very humbled by the experience and explained to the young woman why he felt that he was there at that particular time.
“I was there because I really feel God put me there,” explained Reynolds. “Over the years I’ve been in education we’ve continuously been trained CPR as teachers and that training just stays in your mind and at some point, as in this case, it comes out and is used and we know a little bit more about what to do and God had me there to do it.”
An article from the Athens Review reported that the mother, Destiny Young, credited Reynolds with saving her daughter’s life. The baby sitter’s name was Amber Hurtado and the young daughter’s name was Alexis Stults.
Dayton High School Ag teacher John Reynolds had evacuated up to Athens, Texas before Hurricane Ike to be with parents Ann and Billy Jack Reynolds, and during his stay wound up literally saving the life of a young girl at a fast food restaurant.
Reynolds explained that his parents live up in the Athens area and they had all gone to eat at the Whataburger in Athens on Monday, Sept. 15. After eating, they were sitting there when a couple of ladies came in. One was a young Spanish lady speaking very fluent English saying she needed help.
“I understood her to say she had a kid trapped in a car and she was looking for someone with a hammer to break a window,” said Reynolds. “I got up telling her to let me see what you’ve got, but as we were walking across the parking lot, I noticed the driver’s window was down on the small extended cab truck, which indicated the problem was not what I previously thought.”
Reynolds got quickly to the other side of the truck seeing that the young girl was literally up to her neck in big trouble. Somehow, the window had gone up with the child’s head on the outside of the glass and her body on the inside from the neck down.
Reynolds began working on getting the window down.
“I finally got it to give about two, maybe two-and-a-half inches,” reported Reynolds, “and I don’t know how I got the young lady’s head out of the window. I laid her down across the bucket seats in the front of the truck and started doing chest compressions.”
Reynolds continued the compressions while police showed up and kept it up until paramedics showed up and took over. The EMT’s immediately put her into their ambulance and transported her to the Athens Hospital.
“Then they transported her by lifeflight to a Dallas to a children’s hospital,” Reynolds explained. “Then we came home on Tuesday and Wednesday evening I got a phone call from the little girl’s mother saying that she was all right and at home.”
Reynolds explained that at the same time as he left the dining room with what turned out to be the babysitter, his wife, Valerie, knew from what the other lady was saying in Spanish that something was really wrong and took off after John.
“She came up and saw what was going on and I had her remove the two, or maybe it was three children who were in the back seat,” Reynolds added. “I really thought the little girl might already be dead and didn’t want those other kids to be in that kind of situation.”
Reynolds, actually a very quiet man, was very humbled by the experience and explained to the young woman why he felt that he was there at that particular time.
“I was there because I really feel God put me there,” explained Reynolds. “Over the years I’ve been in education we’ve continuously been trained CPR as teachers and that training just stays in your mind and at some point, as in this case, it comes out and is used and we know a little bit more about what to do and God had me there to do it.”
An article from the Athens Review reported that the mother, Destiny Young, credited Reynolds with saving her daughter’s life. The baby sitter’s name was Amber Hurtado and the young daughter’s name was Alexis Stults.
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