FLORISSANT, Mo. – A nurse's daring decision to pull a man from the wreckage of a crash in Florissant may have saved the man's life.
The crash happened along New Florissant Road Saturday night. Among the several witnesses who stayed on scene to help was a former nurse who jumped into the chaotic scene.
The car responsible for the crash was driving northbound on New Florissant, going more than 90 mph. The car swerved into the southbound lane and hit two cars.
"It was horrific,” remembered Janelle Whiting. “It was unreal. It like a movie."
Whiting said in all of her years working at the hospital, she almost never saw anything as bad as this.
“It was unrecognizable, you couldn’t even tell what kind of a car he was in,” Whiting said.
She was driving around a bend Saturday night when she came across the horrific crash. Even in the midst of the chaos, Janelle’s instinct was to get in there and help.
“We got him out. His feet were jammed underneath the steering column, so I had to wiggle his feet. We carried him over away from the car. The gentleman ripped open his shirt and I just immediately started doing CPR,” Whiting described.
She said she tried to gain access to the second car where she saw a young woman trapped inside. But, the car was too badly damaged. The woman inside died from her injuries.
“I was yelling out, ‘Please baby girl, wiggle your leg, let us know that you're OK,’" Whiting described. “Everything that I have is with her family right now."
Whiting said she can’t help but think about her family at a time like this.
“It could have been my daughter, could have been anybody’s daughter, it could have been me,” she said.
A Calverton police officer noticed the northbound car driving at high speeds and tried to pull it over, but lost sight of the vehicle.
Police told 5 On Your Side that the officer was not chasing the car at the time of the crash.
