While in the hospital, an 18-year-old North Carolina man who had lost his foot in a tree removal accident was suddenly reunited with the guy who had saved him.
Bryson Wilkinson, 18, is learning to live with a new reality after losing his right foot in a strange accident while working for a tree removal service in Wallace. He was nearing the end of his shift as a groundman trainee on May 21, when his leg became entangled in a rope, WECT reports.
“It somehow managed to pull it [his leg] beneath the tree. “It dug me through the ground,” he explained. “I assumed I still had my leg because all I felt was pressure. Then I go to lift up and notice my leg isn’t there anymore.”
In camera footage taken shortly after the accident, a guy called Gary Caldwell, who was residing on the property at the time, rushed into action to save Wilkinson. He used a tourniquet to halt the bleeding.
“I figured it was over for me. “I thought that would be the end of my life,” Wilkinson said.
Wilkinson was transported to Novant New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, where he had surgery to amputate a portion of his leg.
Caldwell would be fighting for his life only two days later after being involved in a motorcycle accident. He ended up in a hospital room down the hall from Wilkinson.
Wilkinson claims the physicians made the connection. The two were reunited, having bonded not only through the disaster but also through their shared path to recovery.
“I burst into tears the moment I went in. “I couldn’t believe it,” Wilkinson remarked of the reunion. “I’m going to keep staying in touch with him as long as I can.”
Wilkinson’s family was also present to thank Caldwell for saving their son, which they described as a divine intervention.
“I told him, ‘If it wasn’t for you, my son might not have been here,'” Wilkinson’s father explained.
Wilkinson’s life has been irrevocably affected by the disaster, but it is far from ended. Now that he has returned home from the hospital, he claims that it is only the beginning.
“I want people to know that losing a limb does not mean their lives are finished. “Things happen,” he explained. “They can overcome it in life. They do not need to give up. They do not need to lose hope.”
Reference: 18-year-old loses foot in tree removal accident, reunites with man who saved his life