Off-duty Wash. medics save crash victim

By Emily Gillespie
The Columbian

VANCOUVER, Wash. — Scott Jensen was on his way home from work Tuesday evening when he saw a vehicle cross the centerline and head toward him on state Highway 503. He slammed on his brakes, but couldn't prevent the collision.

"I remember right before he hit me and the ambulance," the 29-year-old Amboy resident said.

It's what he doesn't remember that makes him tear up with gratitude. He doesn't remember other motorists stopping and running toward his burning Dodge Durango. He doesn't remember being pulled from his vehicle before it became engulfed in flames.

When he learned what happened to him, he jumped at the opportunity to meet two women who helped save his life.

From his hospital bed at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center, he hugged his saviors: Kim Detter and Hiedi Poulson.

"I owe you everything, thank you," he said through tears. "I don't know what else to say."

But both women knew what to say: that they were happy to help.

Detter, 36, of Battle Ground was driving in front of Jensen's Durango and saw the crash play out in her rearview mirror.

A 2015 GMC Yukon driven by 20-year-old Travis Starks of Portland was traveling south on the highway at about 5:40 p.m. when he crossed into the northbound lanes to pass traffic, according to the Washington State Patrol.

A northbound 2015 Toyota Rav 4 driven by Igor Skobkariov swerved into the right lane to try to avoid the crash. The Yukon still struck the left corner panel of the Rav 4, but Skobkariov escaped injury, State Patrol Trooper Will Finn said. The Yukon continued on and struck Jensen's Durango. Flames quickly erupted from the Durango's driver side.

Starks admitted to investigators that he smoked methamphetamine and marijuana earlier in the day and a drug recognition expert determined he was impaired, Finn said. Samples of Starks' blood were obtained and will be evaluated. The vehicle was stolen from a Portland car rental business, according to court records.

Starks made his first appearance in Clark County Superior Court on Wednesday on suspicion of vehicular assault, possession of a stolen vehicle and driving without a valid driver's license. His bail was set at $35,000.

Detter and Poulson missed becoming victims of the crash themselves by mere seconds.

"I don't know how I was missed," said Detter, who works as a medical assistant. "I just pulled over, grabbed my medic bag and ran."

Poulson, a 38-year-old combat medic with the Oregon Army National Guard, drove up to the scene and had the same reaction: help.

She pulled her car over, put the air conditioning on for her son and ran to the burning car.

"I was terrified, but I knew there was a man alive in there," she said. "I'm running up to the vehicle, and I'm absolutely afraid but I don't have a choice. … I couldn't not do it. There's no way I could not help that man."

Poulson was met by a man and the two worked to get Jensen out of the back passenger-side window. Somehow Jensen had freed himself from a safety restraint and had gotten himself in the back seat, Poulson said.

"I just reached inside and he looked at me and I just started pulling as hard as I could because the whole thing was just in flames," she said. "At one point, I had to back up because it was so hot, and then I just went back in. … It was going to go at any second and we had to get him out."

Moments after they got Jensen out of the vehicle, the Durango was consumed by fire.

"I just heard this explosion and felt the heat from it," she said. "It was intense."

Poulson began her trauma assessment and Detter stood by, handing her scissors to cut his clothes and gauze to treat his wounds.

"I'm so glad she was there," Poulson said. "Anything I needed, she gave to me. She was like my right hand."

When they saw Jensen get taken away in an ambulance, both women went home, cleaned up and worried about how he was. They didn't know the identity of the man who helped pull Jensen to safety.

Poulson said she didn't sleep well Tuesday night.

"I could still feel how stuck he was, how hard I was pulling," she said. "I remember the look on his face and the fear that this thing is going to explode and we're all going to die."

Detter called the hospital and learned through hospital staff that Jensen wanted to meet them.

Jensen winced through the pain to hug the women. He suffered three broken ribs, a lacerated liver, a gash to the face and many burns and bruises.

"I'm just a giant bruise," he quipped.

Seeing Jensen smile was enough to make the two women happy.

"He's alive and he's OK and that makes everything worth it," Poulson said. "All the training I've done, every night away from my family, everything I've gone through — it was worth it."

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