Posted: 8/9/05
Postal carrier comes to the rescue
By David Heiller
Argus News Editor
Debbie Schellsmidt of Caledonia says she owes her life to Shirley Gerard.
Gerard, a Caledonia postal carrier, responded to a medical emergency that Schellsmidt experienced on July 22.
Schellsmidt was using a portable table saw to trim a screen door that Friday morning at her home at 418 East Grove Street. The door got stuck, so Schellsmidt shut the saw off. She picked up the door to move it, which tipped over the saw. The saw blade, which was still rotating, glanced off the concrete sidewalk and into the back of Schellsmidtís calf.
Schellsmidt didnít even realize she was cut until her eight-year-old grandson, Deandre Smith, told her, ìGrandma, look at your leg.î
Schellsmidt did. She saw a huge gash, and realized what had happened. She immediately lay on her back and raised her leg so that it would be higher than her heart. She yelled for one of the kids she was watching to call 9-1-1.
Thatís where Shirley Gerard entered the drama. She was dropping off a package across the street. She heard the saw running, heard it quit, then heard Debbie calling out for the children at her house to call 9-1-1. Debbie ran to her truck, grabbed a towel that she had been sitting on, ran back to Schellsmidt, and applied pressure to the cut.
Her nephew, Jacob Swindell, called 9-1-1. Gerard stayed until paramedics arrived, then continued on with her mail route. (As they say in the postal service, ìNeither rain nor sleet nor gloom of night, nor saving someoneís life, shall stay these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.î)
Schellsmidt was taken by ambulance to Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center, where she underwent a two-hour-long surgery. She had to wear a non-weight-bearing case for seven days.
Gerard said is was fortunate that she had driven the truck that day to deliver the package. Normally she delivers the mail by foot, and she isnít slow about it, as anyone who has seen her pound the pavement in Caledonia can attest.
Schellsmidt said the saw just missed cutting her leg bone and her Achilles tendon. ìShe saved my life,î Schellsmidt said. ìShe took it all under control.î
Schellsmidt feels she could have lost her leg or even bled to death without Gerardís quick and efficient response.
ìAt least now I know post office people do more than deliver mail,î she joked.
Gerard, who lives in Spring Grove, has been a city carrier for about 5-1/2 years.
Caledonia Argus
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