When Bood Baltzer sits down to Thanksgiving dinner this year, one of the things for which the active, 87-year-old Knox woman will be thankful is her health.
Miles away, Clarion University juniors Kahla Maguire of Erie and Tiffanny Miller of Kittanning will take a break from their studies and enjoy Thanksgiving with their families. As they reflect on their own reasons to be thankful, Baltzer’s health will likely come to mind.
Their lives became intertwined Oct. 4.
Baltzer had driven to Clarion to run some errands, one of them at Clarion County Courthouse.
“I needed to get some papers, and I stopped by the Register and Recorder’s Office,” Baltzer said. “I stopped to see Judge Arner – I had something for him. He was busy, so I didn’t wait.”
A woman at the courthouse held open the door as Baltzer exited.
Autumn Leaf Festival was in full swing. Maguire and Miller, both athletic training majors, decided to walk downtown. As they neared the courthouse, they saw two sheriff’s deputies tending to an elderly woman who had fallen down the courthouse steps. They watched as Clarion Ambulance personnel arrived and began treating her.
Sheriff Rex Munsee had also responded. In a letter to Clarion University, he wrote, “I noticed two college-age female students standing around at the bottom of the steps. The EMS worker stated that she needed more help in caring for and transporting the patient. Without skipping a beat, the two students stated that they were EMTs. They put down their book bags and jackets and immediately began assisting on the steps.”
As athletic training majors, part of Maguire and Miller’s course of study is an emergency medical technician class, which the women took last fall. In February they sat for the certification test and passed. That training kicked in when they heard the EMT ask for assistance.
They stayed at Baltzer’s head, talking to her and asking questions to keep her alert, a critical aspect of treating a patient who has experienced a head injury. They helped load her into the ambulance, then placed the soiled gloves and patches inside a hazardous blood bag.
Coincidentally, one of their Clarion University instructors, Mike Chesterfield, is an EMT and was part of the team that airlifted Baltzer to Hamot. Beyond that, Maguire and Miller could only hope that their first patient fared well.
Baltzer remembers nothing of her tumble down the steps. Her first memory after exiting the courthouse was awakening in the helicopter. After two days at Hamot, where her head was stitched, she was given blood and was treated for a concussion, she was released to the care of her daughter, a nurse. She had been told that two Clarion students were among the people who cared for her at the courthouse.
On Nov. 15 the three women visited at Baltzer’s home. Maguire and Miller answered Baltzer’s questions about the accident, and Baltzer filled them in on her recovery. She said she has some occasional lightheadedness, but she generally is back to normal.
For Baltzer, “normal” includes being an active member of Edenburg Presbyterian Church. On the day of the visit with Maguire and Miller, she was preparing to make soup for the church’s upcoming Once Upon a Christmas event.
“We really wanted to know how you were,” Maguire told Baltzer. “You had such a hard fall, and we really worried about you.”
“I’m so grateful for all you did,” Baltzer said.
“I want to give credit to these two students, who unselfishly showcased the best attributes of an institution of higher learning,” Munsee wrote. “These ladies exemplified what Clarion University tries to instill in all of their students – service, skill and compassion.”
