Beacon nurse jumps into action to help elderly victim at accident scene

Kelsey Likens remembers everything happening in slow motion.

The Beacon nurse had just left a Mishawaka hair salon Tuesday afternoon with a fresh cut and color. She closed the door behind her at just after 3 o’clock and started down the steps. She was headed to work at MedPoint Urgent Care Ireland Road when she heard a loud crash.

Photo Provided by WNDU-TV

Kelsey looked up and saw an airborne navy blue sport utility vehicle coming toward her.

She watched as the SUV flipped and landed 100, maybe 200 feet away. For a second, it seemed surreal. Her heart racing and her hands shaking, Kelsey dialed 911 as she rushed to the vehicles involved in the accident near the corner of Main and Battell streets, north of downtown.

She approached an Indiana State Trooper as he slowly got out of his car. The hood of his white patrol car was smashed.

“Are you OK?” she asked the officer. He nodded.

The officer looked down at his arm, which was bleeding, and he proceeded to call for back-up. Knowing the officer was OK, Kelsey turned and ran over to the SUV, which was resting on its side, driver’s side up.

“I looked inside and saw an older man. I knew we had to get him out.”

The nurse hollered over to a group of bystanders.

“Can we roll the car to help get him out?” she asked them.

“I’m not sure if we actually would have been able to turn it over, but with our adrenaline maybe we could have,” she said. But one of the men in the group of bystanders didn’t think they’d be able to.

The windshield was smashed, so Kelsey started peeling it back so she could get inside the SUV. She asked the bystander for something she could put around her hand to keep from getting cut.

“Someone gave me the shirt off his back, literally” she said.

She quickly worked to remove the windshield with her hands and feet. “I was kicking it and jumping on it, too, because I was on a mission. The seatbelt was holding the man in his seat, but he was tipping over and I couldn’t leave him hanging there.”

Kelsey squeezed inside the SUV. She asked the victim if he felt neck pain or back pain. She looked for any lacerations, as he shook his head, and she saw blood on his arm.

“I was worried he would pass out from his position on his side,” Kelsey said. “So I knew I couldn’t wait until the ambulance got there.”

She carefully unbuckled his seatbelt and helped lower the accident victim to the ground. They sat facing one another when she asked if he thought he could stand.

The man was missing a shoe, so Kelsey laid a car mat over the glass. Together, they exited the vehicle through the broken windshield.

“My hair stylist, and my mother-in-law, who had still been inside getting her hair done, had come outside. I grabbed a towel from them to wrap around his arm, and they found a chair for him to sit in,” she said.

Police, fire and medics had arrived, so Kelsey returned to the SUV and found the man’s phone. She also grabbed the small white stuffed animal puppy that was still hanging on his rearview mirror.

“I put it in his pocket, so when he headed to the hospital he had something with him. Since he had it hanging in his car, it might have been special, from a grandchild or someone,” she said.

“I’m just thankful he didn’t have any serious injuries, because it could’ve been really bad.”

Before Kelsey left, she leaned down to say good-bye to the man she had helped.

“Thanks for putting some excitement into my day. I’m going to go take care of patients now.”

Kelsey acted quickly, assessing the situation and taking action in the calm, steady way that you’d expect from a nurse. But she downplays the heroics she demonstrated at the scene of Tuesday’s accident.

“I couldn’t feel good about myself just standing there and not doing anything, you know? I wasn’t going to wait for people to come help. I’m too much of a doer,” Kelsey said. “I wouldn’t have been able to forgive myself. Every minute counts. It’s your duty as a nurse.”