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This is the kind of person we all want to be involved in EMS.

-Wes Ogilvie, MPA, JD, EMT-B

Austin, Texas

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/DN-gphero_27me\

t.ART0.North.Edition2.101bafbf.html

Teen honored for saving man in wheelchair

Grand Prairie: Heroic act persuades him to drop pigskin, be paramedic

07:08 AM CDT on Thursday, April 27, 2006

By KATHY A. GOOLSBY / The Dallas Morning News

It was an unexpected question with lifesaving – and life-altering –

consequences.

Do you feel like getting muddy? " ny Click, owner of A1 Carpet Cleaning,

asked 19-year-old T.J. Briggs as the pair worked a job one Saturday last month .

" I didn't know what he was talking about, but I said, 'I have waders in my

truck,' " said T.J., a senior at South Grand Prairie High School. " He said to

get them, so I walked out to my truck. That's when I realized there was a guy

stuck in water and mud. "

The man, who declined to give his name and has not been identified, had driven

his motorized wheelchair into a muddy, rain-filled hole on March 18. Becky Click

heard him yelling for help when she stopped by the south Grand Prairie

child-care center where her husband and his part-time employee, T.J., were

cleaning carpets.

Despite temperatures in the low 50s, T.J. threw on the waders and splashed into

the waist-deep water to rescue the man.

Until that moment, the Warriors' back-up quarterback said he had been debating

whether to play college football or pursue a more altruistic career.

" I had been thinking about becoming a paramedic, and that pushed it, " T.J. said.

" It felt really good to help that man, and I decided I want to do that for a

living. "

But first he had to save the man, who was leaning over with his wheelchair stuck

in mud. T.J. initially tried to pull him out but quickly found himself being

sucked down into thigh-deep mud.

" I was sinking, and the more he struggled, the more he was sinking, " T.J. said.

" It was like quicksand, and I knew I wasn't getting him out of there by myself. "

Mrs. Click called 911 on her cellphone, then she and her husband tried to help

calm the man while they waited for emergency crews.

T.J. eventually managed to get one leg under the man for support, then lifted

him in a bear hug out of harm's way. When firefighters arrived, T.J. helped free

the man's leg from the mud while the firefighters pulled him out of the hole.

" The man had no complaints and declined medical attention, so they washed the

mud off the wheelchair and the patient, and he got in it and was gone, " said

Grand Prairie Fire Marshal C.J. Grippin. " He left before they could get any

information on him. "

T.J. left, too, but just long enough to go home and shower before returning to

finish the carpet-cleaning job. His father, Cliff Briggs, said that's pretty

typical of his only son.

" I told him, 'That's a pretty big deal. You saved this guy's life,' but to him

it wasn't any big deal, " Mr. Briggs said. " He doesn't get too excited. "

Mr. Click said he had good reasons for sending T.J. into the hole instead of

going himself.

" It was very cold, and I knew he was young and could handle it better than me, "

Mr. Click said, laughing. " Plus, when T.J. said he had waders, I said, 'You're

the man.' "

The Grand Prairie school board agreed. At the regular board meeting this month,

T.J. received a Pillar of the Community Award from the school district. The

award is occasionally given to someone whose actions, in the eyes of school

district officials, have made the world a better place.

In typical fashion, T.J. played down the honor.

" I didn't need to get recognized for something that was just an act of

kindness, " he said. " It was a once-in-a-lifetime thing, but it was like

something I would do every day. "