-- I-5 Semi VS. Sedan Crash Involving Pregnant Woman Averts Greater Tragedy As Iraq Vet On Scene
Eric Hall’s Life of Service Prepared Him to Save Lives When Rolled Vehicle Catches Fire and Threatens Crash Victim and Onlookers
January 22, 2019, Bremerton, Washington: A Bremerton, WA man significantly mitigated the results of a crash involving a pregnant woman driving a sedan and an eighteen wheeled tractor trailer. Eric Hall was traveling South on I-5 near Seattle when a large commercial truck veered from its Northbound direction into the Southbound lane of traffic and hit a woman head on that was thirty-six weeks into her pregnancy. Eric, a Nurse Practitioner, sprang into action when he saw the accident occur in real-time. The first medical expert on the scene and while treating the woman for shock, Eric noticed gasoline streaming from the crumpled tank of the sedan along with a growing crowd of motorists watching the action too closely. Eric dispersed the audience just as the car went up in flames.
Eric Hall, a veteran of the Iraq War and a former Air NP, has a long history of heroics. These I-5 heroics are only one in a laundry list of selfless acts performed without regard to his safety. On a recent cross country Delta flight, Eric was called upon to assist a gentleman who had lost consciences in the lavatory. After reviving the man, the Delta Captain asked Eric to keep him abreast of the patient’s vitals so the flight could continue without an emergency landing. Without thought, Eric complied which resulted in both the plane and the man arriving safely, on time at SeaTac. The above Delta Flight wasn’t Eric's only airborne heroics. During the Iraq War, Captain Eric Hall a Flight Surgeon routinely made life or death decisions high in the air and while taking off and landing in the midst of intense combat. On one life-saving mission, an RPG struck his medical chopper and while saving the life of the only other survivor his helicopter, was shot himself. Eric's life-saving heroics and injury resulted in a highly decorated uniform. Rarely, do we as a society, appreciate the sustained efforts of an individual to better our community and give them the appreciation and recognition they deserve. The I-5 accident brought Eric to attention but learning about his life of service genuinely qualifies him as a sustained hero!
Eric began his life of service at the age of 7 when he first learned “Pet First Aid” and would help neighborhood cats and dogs. At 15, he joined the Red Cross and was a lifeguard responsible for keeping swimmers safe at Rochester, NY area YMCA pools where he grew up. Eric has always heeded to this sense of service and after his service to our country in Iraq, applied his Flight Surgeon skills to a civilian role as an "Air NP," that regularly saved the lives of the most critical of trauma patients. Eric continues his affiliation with the Red Cross to this day even with his injuries sustained in Iraq. As a volunteer Duty Officer with the Red Cross, he constructs the infrastructure necessary to reconstruct people’s lives after tragic events. Eric has performed this service after a laundry list of natural disasters including Hurricane’s “Katrina,” “Matthew,” “Rita,” and “Lane” as well as the Flooding in the Midwest and Houston to name only a few.
“Without Eric jumping into immediate action when called, people that have lost everything and thought there was no hope suddenly see the light in the dark tunnel through which they are traveling,” Steve Finely, Disaster Program Manager at the American Red Cross, stated firmly. “He drops everything and with an empathetic grace that is inherent to his being marches with purpose into a storm, both literally and figuratively,” Steve added. Eric’s colleague and friend, Brittany Waggoner, RN, MPH, stated that she “has never seen anyone more selfless in being and willing to put his life on hold to put other people’s {lives} back together.” “Even when Eric’s life seems to fall apart around him, he will put aside his tragedy and help others with theirs,” Brittany qualified.
When his friend Brittany mentioned adversity, she meant it. In addition to his bravery in facing his war injuries, while still in the Army, Eric was engaged to a woman who lost her life (KIA) fighting terrorists in Afghanistan. Eric said, “That it was unbearable, and took me a long time to realize that it .” “It didn’t seem real even with all the death surrounding me.” “I had to go on,” Eric said after an emotional pause.
Eric resides in Bremerton, WA, which is a suburb of Seattle on the Kitsap Peninsula and still serves the Red Cross Disaster Management Team, on call 24/7 365. Let's all be thankful people like Eric Hall heed to their sense of duty!
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