TEENAGER IMPROVES AFTER TEAM EFFORT SAVED LIFE AFTER 50-FOOT FALL

Mrs. Jackie Brandtner, and others, say a miracle and teamwork saved the life of her 16-year-old son, Brian Brandtner, when he fell head first from the sheer wall of an abandoned quarry in Trail of Tears State Park Tuesday.

Late last week, Brandtner's condition was upgraded from serious to fair when he was moved from the surgical intensive care unit to a room in the orthopedic wing at Southeast Missouri Hospital, according to his mother.

Brandtner said her son's injuries include a compound fracture of the left femur (thigh bone), a fractured jaw and shattered facial bones, and multiple cuts and lacerations that required numerous stitches. But she said there were no serious internal injuries.

Brandtner, and witnesses at the scene of the accident, said the miracle that helped save her son's life was a small tree growing out the side of the steep quarry wall.

When Brian slipped off the wall, he plunged head-first for more than 50 feet before hitting the tree, which broke his fall.

"It was a team effort all the way, from the Boy Scout who gave Brandtner the initial first aid that prevented additional life-threatening injuries, to the surgical and operating room team that was standing by when he was wheeled through the hospital's emergency room doors," said Mark Sprigg, chief flight nurse with Southeast Missouri Hospital's Life Beat helicopter service.

Brandtner, and a group of other high school-aged friends most of them team mates on the Notre Dame High School soccer team went to the park Tuesday between soccer practices to hike. Park officials stressed no alcohol involved in the accident.

Within seconds after Brandtner fell, 17-year-old Chris Talley, a Life Scout with Boy Scout Troop 16, and a close friend of Brandtner, was at his side.

Sprigg said Talley prevented Brandtner, who was still conscious, from moving around and getting up, and kept the injured boy's airway open after he vomited.

Sprigg said the open, compound fracture of the leg was causing interior bleeding into the leg that would have become worse if he had tried to stand up.

"He (Talley) did an exceptional job, considering he had no equipment to work with," said Sprigg. "Chris kept Brian quiet and prevented him from causing additional, and possibly fatal injuries."

While Talley, and several other friends stayed with Brandtner, Jason Thurman, 17, another soccer teammate of Brandtner's, ran nearly two miles down the railroad track, and up the steep trail to the park's scenic overlook bluff, where he drove his motor scooter to the park maintenance building for help.

Seconds later, the call came into the Cape County Private Ambulance Service. Ambulance service paramedic David Blackburn said as they were en route to the park, Life Beat dispatch at the hospital was alerted to put the helicopter on stand-by.

Meanwhile, Cape Girardeau Deputy Sheriff David Valentine, who works part-time for the ambulance service as a paramedic, heard the call for help in his patrol car while on Route K, and sped toward the park with the ambulance.

Valentine parked his car at the scenic overlook, hiked down the trail and ran up the railroad tracks with his first aid kit to the quarry, where he found the hurt teenager.

Valentine checked the injured boy's vital signs and radioed them back to Blackburn, who requested the helicopter be dispatched.

While the ambulance and helicopter were enroute to the park, the Burlington Northern Railroad was notified, and two of the railroad's high-rail trucks met the ambulance paramedics at the park marina to transport them the final three miles to the quarry.

Sprigg said they first considered landing the helicopter at the marina, but pilot Jim Prince, a helicopter pilot for 23 years, found a place where he could set the helicopter down near the railroad tracks, about 100 yards from Brandtner.

Witnesses on the ground said it looked close, but Prince said the landing along the railroad track was no more difficult than landing in a cornfield or other remote area.

Sprigg said it wasn't the landing, but Brandtner's appearance that scared him when he arrived at the scene. "I looked at Brian, then I looked up and saw how far he had fallen and wondered how he could have survived the fall. I could see he was in pretty bad shape. His pulse was weak and his heartbeat very rapid," he said.

Only 15 minutes elapsed from the time the helicopter landed until it took off for the hospital.

At the hospital, a surgical and operating room team was alerted and standing by when Brandtner was rushed into the hospital's emergency room where he underwent emergency surgery.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Brandtner says Brian's condition is improving. "Everybody, his friends, team mates, coaches, teachers, the paramedics, are coming in to see this `miracle boy,'" she said.

She said Brian's jaw will remained wired shut for at least another three weeks. But added Brian's doctor told her Brian may be able to come home as early as this week.

Brandtner said Brian's friends, and the student body and staff at Notre Dame High School are already making plans to help him get around the school when he returns to classes later this fall. Classes began last week.

Brandtner said she is extremely grateful to everyone who helped save her son's life, including his friend, Chris Talley, and the other boys.

"Chris is a hero," she stated. "He may be small physically, but in my eyes he will always be big in stature for his courage and composure to do what he did for Brian."