Right place, right time: Cav Soldier saves a life

Courtesy Photo | Jeremy Osheim and Molei Wright, Colorado natives, survived a devastating vehicle accident during a snow storm in Colorado Jan. 30, 2016. 2nd Lt. Henry Rodriquez, a tank commander assigned to Company A, 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, and his wife Brittany were the first ones on the scene, rendered aid, and saved Wright’s life. (Courtesy Photo)  

FORT HOOD, TX, UNITED STATES

05.25.2016

Story by Staff Sgt. Leah Kilpatrick 

3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division

FORT HOOD, Texas — Every day across the world in homes and hospitals, the human body proves its toughness, and the human heart demonstrates its capacity for compassion.
One 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, officer has experienced both first-hand.
On Jan. 30, on a Denver highway beset by blizzard conditions, a 28-year-old woman fought for her life with the help of a man her family knows simply as Henry.
2nd Lt. Henry Rodriquez and his wife, Brittany, were driving through snowy conditions in an attempt to get out of Colorado before a storm hit. They had escaped to the mountains for the weekend while Rodriquez was still a student in the Army Basic Officer Leader Course at Fort Benning, Georgia.
On their journey down U.S. Route 285, the couple came across Molei Wright in an encounter that would change their lives.
When Rodriquez saw a semi-truck on the side of the road and a vehicle in the center after what was clearly a collision, he knew he had to help, he said.
“I told my wife to put the hazards on, stay in the car and call 911, and then I was going to go and see if everyone was okay,” said the Artesia, New Mexico, native. “I went to the driver’s side, because that was the side with the most damage to it. It was pretty much like scrap metal.”
After assessing the driver, Jeremy Osheim, and determining that he was going to be okay, Rodriquez asked Osheim if there was anyone else in the car.
Osheim said, “Molei.” Molei was his girlfriend.
But there didn’t appear to be anyone in the passenger seat or the back seat.
“I didn’t see anybody in the car, so I was like, ‘Where is she?’” Rodriquez said. “And he goes, ‘She was right here,’ and I didn’t see anyone in the passenger seat, so I ran around instantly, and I opened the door, and Molei was in the floorboard tucked in where you usually put your feet.”
After ascertaining that her pulse was weak, and she was in dire straits, Rodriquez resolved to remove her from the vehicle.
“I tried to stabilize her neck as best I could and got her out of the vehicle,” he said. “I picked her up by myself, put her on the ground, started CPR, did compressions. The boyfriend was going crazy, because he was lodged into the car. He wasn’t able to move, and I can’t imagine not being able to.”
Rodriquez began CPR. When more cars came along, Brittany solicited their help. One man helped Rodriquez perform CPR by doing chest compressions while he gave breaths. Another man spoke on the phone to emergency personnel.
They collected blankets from other motorists to keep Molei warm. Rodriquez remained calm and managed the whole situation, directing people, talking through the instructions to perform CPR.
When Molei began breathing on her own, Rodriquez rolled her on her side in what is known as the recovery position, wrapped her in blankets, talked to her, and reassured her that she would be okay. He stayed with her until the ambulance came – it took 45 minutes.
Upon handing Osheim and Molei over to the EMTs, the couple continued down the mountain and caught the last flight out of Denver before the storm grounded air traffic for five days.
Rodriquez and Brittany returned to Fort Benning where he completed the Army Basic Officer Leaders Course, but the relationship with Molei didn’t end there.
“I told my wife to find her family and see if she made it,” he said. “And that’s all we cared about was to see if she made it, because it would have haunted us, not being able to know what happened to her. We got in contact with the hospital. They told us she made it, and that’s where it stopped. We never thought we’d get any feedback from her family or anything, and they gave us a call.”
Meanwhile, back in Colorado:
A couple of days after the accident, Osheim, who suffered a concussion and some broken ribs, began talking about what happened, said Maureen Wright, Molei’s mother.
“He told us about a couple that helped them,” said the Parker, Colorado, native. “The truck went over the line. He tried to avoid the truck, and the truck hit them. And he said if it wasn’t for the young couple, some guy and his wife or girlfriend – they didn’t know – if they weren’t there, he didn’t know what would have happened.”
A few days later, Wright said, the hospital staff left a sticky note saying that a young woman called and wanted to speak to Osheim.
After much apprehension, Wright finally spoke with Rodriquez, who told her everything from his perspective.
“And the whole time I was listening to him talk I kept thinking, ‘God, I have to meet him,’” she said.
Three months later, Rodriquez was back in Colorado at Molei’s bed side, holding her hand and telling her how happy he was to be able to see her.
Molei has come a long way since Jan. 30. Her spine is fused. She suffered six fractured vertebrae in her neck, and doctors said she was internally decapitated with less than a 1 percent chance of surviving.
The sheer act of removing her from the vehicle could have resulted in permanent paralysis, but the care Rodriquez took in stabilizing her neck and moving her carefully saved her life and her mobility.
“I didn’t believe in miracles until this happened,” Wright said. “We constantly talk about Henry and Brittany. We say, ‘They’re your guardian angels. Wait until you meet them,’ because she doesn’t remember meeting them when they were out here before.”
Not only did Rodriquez have basic knowledge of tactical field casualty care in which all Soldiers are trained, but he had also taken EMT classes in both high school and college, attended Cadet Troop Leader Training with the 421st Multifunctional Medical Battalion in Germany and performed many of their tasks during train-up for the Expert Field Medical Badge testing.
“I don’t think anybody prepares for that,” said Rodriquez, despite the knowledge he brought to the situation. “I don’t think anybody wants to put themselves in that situation, but luckily I’m not a flight kind of person. I’m a fight kind of person. I was there to be able to give aid at that time. I just did what I had to do at the time. Her family says I’m a hero. To me, I would want the same aid. If it was me or my wife, I’d want someone to be there and do the same thing for me, so that’s the way I look at it.”
His diligent efforts paid off.
Within the last two weeks, Molei has had her tracheostomy closed and has spoken for the first time since the accident, Wright said, and on any given day of the week can be found practicing walking up and down the stairs at Craig Hospital in Englewood, Colorado.
Arriving to Fort Hood in April, Rodriquez has been assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, where he is prepared to make use of those same skills if ever his Soldiers need him.
“If for instance Soldiers are on the battlefield, that aid is what you have to give them to be able to take your Soldiers back home, and I expect the same aid for me if I was ever injured on the battlefield, that my Soldiers would be able to take care of me,” he said.
While Molei is in Colorado showing that the human body is resilient beyond understanding, Rodriquez is in Texas, convinced that life is fleeting, and every moment is precious.
Recently the two couples had the opportunity to talk and see each other via video teleconference, and Molei finally got the chance to thank Rodriquez.
“Thank you for everything,” she said in hushed tones. “I owe you a lot.”
Rodriquez was shocked to see the progress Molei has made in her recovery.
“These are huge strides in such a short time,” he said. “She’s a fighter.”
Osheim echoed that sentiment, noting that if anyone could survive an ordeal such as this, Molei can.
“She’s an incredible person,” he said. “If you picked one person to save, it had to be her.”
While she still has a long way to go on her recovery journey, her family and the Rodriquez’s have every intention of staying in her corner indefinitely.
“Situations like this make you very happy for what you have in life, very honored for every day that you’re living,” he said. “They were going up the mountain one day -- going to have some fun and go skiing, and this incident happened. You never know. It definitely makes me have a lot more gratitude toward every day and just live life.”

• Date Taken: 05.25.2016
• Date Posted: 05.25.2016 16:48
• Story ID: 199065
• Location: FORT HOOD, TX, US
• Hometown: ARTESIA, NM, US
• Hometown: BRECKENRIDGE, CO, US
• Hometown: DENVER, CO, US
• Hometown: PARKER, CO, US