Sailors Render First Aid After Traffic Accident

By MC2 Josh Coté, NAS Sigonella Public Affairs

Daniele Motta, Mayor of Belpasso, and Moreno Pecorino, head of city road network, recognized two Sailors on May 17 for their heroic actions after a truck struck a pedestrian last month.

Hospitalman Donald Leal and Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Erika Shirley were honored for their selfless effort in serving as first responders during a traffic accident that occurred on April 16, 2021.

The Sailors said they did not see the actual accident, but they witnessed the truck race past them and heard a tremendously loud crash. Unfortunately, a local Sicilian man in his seventies was standing on the sidewalk at the entrance to a local café when the truck struck him. The two Sailors and a couple of bystanders played a key role in helping the man survive this ordeal.

The man is currently recovering in a local hospital and wishes to thank the Sailors in person when he finally recovers from his injuries.

“We would like to praise the two corpsman,” said Motta at a ceremony honoring the Sailors outside the town hall in Belpasso. “Although the man was unfortunate to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and was struck by the truck, he was very lucky that the two corpsman happen to be nearby to be first responders to help him.”

Even in the middle of a chaotic moment, both Sailors were able to calm down and spring into action.

“It just looked really bad and there was glass all over,” said Leal. “It looked like something straight out of a movie. There was one man lying on the ground near a stopped truck, and we could tell it was a bad. We were lucky he was alive; at the time it did not look like anyone could come back from that within the few minutes we were there.”

In emergency situations, a person can cycle through a number of different emotions.

“It was a little spooky and I was a little jittery, but I had the odd sense of calm over me knowing I had someone’s life in my hands,” said Shirley. “That kind of helped me keep my composure; there were a lot of people around us who were also very comforting. It was my first experience ever being in a trauma situation like that, and it was scary, but we knew this was something we had to do, so we had that calm come over us.”

Knowing that you helped save someone’s life can be a very rewarding feeling.

“It was pretty amazing,” said Shirley. “Sometimes you don’t get to see what you do payoff and in that moment we got to see it payoff, so it was pretty cool. It was a great feeling.”

Capt. Denise Gechas, U.S. Navy Medical Readiness and Training Command Sigonella commanding officer, was also present at the ceremony and expressed her pride in the Sailors.

“We have all of these training programs in the Navy, and we train our corpsman to meet the mission,” said Gechas. “When they step outside the training environment or deployment arena and they go out into the civilian community in a foreign country, it is even more impressive that they stopped and they did what they are trained to do to save a life. And that speaks volumes to us as leaders about the quality of people that we have in the Navy and especially with our Navy corpsman, so we are extremely proud.”