A trucker is being hailed as a hero for his part in saving a driver’s life after he figured out she was having a stroke without even being in the same place.
Joel Dees, a driver for Doug Andrus Distributing LLC, has always made a point of talking with other drivers and keeping in touch. One morning he was starting out his day and called up another driver from his company who he had promised he would reach out to when he was on the road.
He called multiple times before she finally picked up, but he couldn’t hear her voice.
“I thought she had forgotten to put on her headset so I was rousing her to stop fumbling,” he told the Truckload Carrier’s Association. But when he heard a slurring sound and then thought he could make out the word ‘help,’ he put two and two together. She had told him previously of her history of strokes, so he immediately called 911.
Drees knew where she would be parked that night since they had talked the day before, so when an officer arrived, he found her exactly where Drees said she’d be. When the officer confirmed that she was having a stroke, Drees notified their company and called the driver’s family to let them know what was happening and where she would be treated.
Source: gobytrucknews, truckload, todaystrucking
Everyone knows kids do stupid things but if the level of stupid rises to something like this… the parents did a woefully inadequate job.
So if you’re reading this and you have kids under eighteen, how about fold up the laptop and go talk to them – explain the difference between ‘stupid’ (showing ass doing donuts and clipping a parked car) and ‘criminal’ (say, shooting an actual firearm at moving vehicles with an actual human driving them.)
Right on man!!! Stokes are devastating if you catch it early enough the damage it may cause could be lessoned!!!
Great job on the drivers part! However, why is there a driver with a history of strokes still behind the wheel of a truck? Why did Andrus even hire/keep her? Why did a doctor give her a medical card? If I had a stroke and was lucky enough to survive I would NEVER get behind the wheel of a truck again.
My guess is that she likely kept it secret from both Andrus and the doctor who issued her medical card. Surely Andrus isn’t stupid enough to allow a driver, known to have had multiple strokes, behind the wheel of his truck?????
What a great driver! I hope the other driver is ok and doing well. Good job!
No one will like this..Why didn’t that driver turn her in to the company, and get her off the road ?
Every time she got behind the wheel she put other peoples lives in danger.
I would have turned her in in a heartbeat..!! No way if she killed someone having a stroke would I want that on my conscious.