TONOPAH (KTNV) — At the start of the pandemic, it was our delivery drivers who were hailed as heroes. Fast forward to today, and the term hero couldn't be more fitting for two UPS drivers who saved a man's life.
UPS drivers Julie Jefferson and Spencer Mcvay were driving on a rural stretch of highway in Tonopah, Nevada, located just north of Las Vegas, on Feb. 20, when the unexpected happened.
"It was about two in the morning, somewhere around there, and there was a truck and people in the middle of the road, so I stopped," said Jefferson, who was driving the UPS truck.
A man named Christopher was pinned underneath a semi-truck that had jack-knifed. His leg, nearly severed.
"I think I kind of went into a little bit of shock," said Mcvay, Jefferson's coworker and passenger of the UPS truck. "I mean his leg was pretty bad, it was completely detached, and you know he was bleeding. He was lucid and able to talk and communicate"
The two UPS drivers swiftly took action and used a bystander's belt as a tourniquet.
"I was able to move the truck with the help of the other people who were there, keeping pressure and holding the tourniquet on his leg," Jefferson said.
If it wasn't for Jefferson and Mcvay's quick thinking, the man very well could have bled out, and died.
Mcvay said, "Julie [Jefferson] was there, I think she was his angel because she was there to comfort him. He wanted to hold her hand and wouldn't let her go."
While in Jefferson's care, "He said, 'Please don't leave me, I don't want to die.'"
"All I could say to him," she recalled, " was 'I'm not going anywhere, we're gonna be right here the whole time.'"
During the chaotic scene, Jefferson described how her instincts kicked in when medics didn't arrive for nearly 45 minutes.
"For me it was instinctual, that is just what you do as a human. You see someone in need and you help them. You never know, you could save someone's life," Jefferson said.
This article was written by Zora Asberry for KTNV.
