Trapped Under a Lawnmower

00:00:01:28 – 00:00:33:22
Co-host Deborah Tetley: Before we start, a word of caution. As you know, STARS provides pre-hospital care for critically ill and injured patients who have sustained severe trauma or Co-host Deborah Tetleyilitating illnesses. It’s what we do. As such, some of the details in this podcast may be difficult for some listeners. The STARS mission being explored this season involves graphic descriptions of physical injuries to a youth. Psychological impacts are also detailed. The patient’s family and supporters have generously allowed us to tell this story as a personalized insight into STARS.

00:00:33:25 – 00:01:07:15
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: And for that, we are genuinely grateful. The community, and everyone else who was involved, welcomed us with open arms to help us tell this story. Having spent time with about 20 people researching it and recording interviews on the phone, virtually, in studio, and right at the scene of the incident, we can tell you this: our conversations were raw and candid, and as such, some of the details uncomfortable. For this podcast, we’ve endeavoured to tell the story accurately without being too sensational. Still, listener discretion is advised.

00:01:07:18 – 00:01:13:19
STARS EMERGENCY LINK CENTRE — EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST: STAR 11, Link Centre, you’re on pre-alert for a scene call 13 nautical miles northwest of Rosthern in Laird.

00:01:13:19 – 00:01:16:04
STARS Emergency Link Centre — Pilot Alex Parra: Link Centre, STAR 11 copies. Standby, weather.

00:01:16:06 – 00:01:30:15
STARS EMERGENCY LINK CENTRE — EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST: We have a 16-year-old male who was trapped under a riding lawnmower. His whole body is trapped. Possible lung puncture. Behind the arena in the middle of the field. ALS is 25 minutes.

00:01:30:15 – 00:01:33:04
STARS flight nurse Bailey Sinclair: : It was like nothing I’ve ever seen before.

00:01:33:07 – 00:01:40:00
Warren Peters: You know, tell my mom and my brother that I love them, and it was like, oh, he’s going to… he’s going to be gone here.

00:01:40:00 – 00:01:47:17
Kevin Burrell: In my 11 or so years as a firefighter and first responder, that was probably my most traumatic call.

00:01:47:19 – 00:01:56:12
Christine Wollmann: And I thought to myself that I am burying my kid. He’s in a million pieces, knowing that there’s three blades underneath that mower deck.

00:01:56:14 – 00:02:09:27
STARS flight paramedic Glen Pilon: From my 30 years of experience, when somebody is trapped like that and very hypotensive and with difficulty breathing, you know that… they only have about 10 minutes left to live.

00:02:09:29 – 00:02:22:09
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: : From STARS, this is Mission Ready, Season 2, presented by ARC Resources. Episode 1: Trapped Under a Lawnmower.

00:02:22:12 – 00:02:23:16
STARS Emergency Link Centre — Flight nurse Bailey Sinclair: : STAR 11 medical.

00:02:23:18 – 00:02:31:11
STARS EMERGENCY LINK CENTRE — EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST: : Hey, guys. It’s Lindsay in the Link Centre. Just regarding this call in Laird, it’s a quick flight for you guys. You’re about a 16 minute flight.

00:02:31:14 – 00:02:46:16
Co-host Deborah Tetley: : Welcome to Mission Ready, presented by ARC Resources. This STARS podcast breaks down in detail one mission each season to give you a stronger understanding of how we provide critical care anywhere, and what happens before and after the mission. I’m Co-host Deborah Tetley.

00:02:46:19 – 00:02:50:21
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: And I’m Co-host Lyle Aspinall. We have the pleasure of being your hosts for this podcast.

00:02:50:23 – 00:03:22:22
Co-host Deborah Tetley: : In our second season of Mission Ready. We’re breaking down a STARS call from the summer of 2022 that happened in the village of Laird, Saskatchewan, when a harrowing incident left a teenager, Draidyn Wollmann, critically injured and fighting for his life. You’ll meet many people who were there from the very beginning: his boss who found him and made the initial call to his mom, his friends, and the local emergency responders who helped along the way. You’ll learn about how our network of allies enables us to provide critical care anywhere.

00:03:22:25 – 00:03:44:10
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: : You’ll also meet all four STARS crew members who were on duty, plus the off-duty STARS paramedic who attended, a call taker at the STARS Emergency Link Centre more than 650 km away, and the transport physician who guided the care. For STARS flight paramedic Glen Pilon, this would be one of the most horrific calls in the team’s combined 40-plus years of critical care experience.

00:03:44:13 – 00:03:53:00
STARS flight paramedic Glen Pilon: : Pediatric calls are some of the toughest calls to deal with because they have their whole life ahead of them, right?

00:03:53:03 – 00:04:22:21
Co-host Deborah Tetley: : Almost everything about July 19^th, 2022, in Laird, Saskatchewan, was typical. The tiny village was quiet. No hustle or bustle. The sun was high in the sky, beating down, and the air was hot and thick. Students were enjoying summer vacation, hanging with friends or working odd jobs. Residents were relaxing on their decks. Some were counting down the hours until the end of the workday or simply toiling in the garden. The dog days of summer were on the horizon.

00:04:22:24 – 00:04:32:14
STARS flight paramedic Glen Pilon: : Yeah, just a beautiful, sunny day. Here in Saskatchewan. Not a cloud in the sky. An absolutely gorgeous warm day.

00:04:32:21 – 00:05:45:27
Co-host Deborah Tetley: : We say ​“almost” typical, because what happened just after the lunch hour was far from it. And the events that followed rocked this village of 275 residents. Laird is located in central Saskatchewan, about 67 km north of the city of Saskatoon via highway 12 and about an hour southwest of Prince Albert. It’s in the Saskatchewan River Valley and sits on the traditional lands of Stoney Knoll First Nation. There’s an arena, a baseball diamond, one school, and a handful of businesses, including a hotel, a grocery shop, and insurance office. Not far from the municipal office, there’s a lawnmower shop, which at one time was the manufacturing facility for the lawnmower type involved in this incident. There are a few new homes on the edge of town, and there’s an abundance of greenspace surrounding a playground. The closest hospital is in the neighboring town of Rosthern, a 20-minute drive and the closest trauma centre is in Saskatoon. A welcome sign at the edge of the village proclaims ​‘The Community That Pulls Together.’

00:05:46:00 – 00:06:11:26
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: : Then 16-year-old Draidyn Wollmann was hired by the village of Laird to mow lawns for the summer. Not only had his older brother and his mother both done the same job before him, it was also his first job and he was saving up to buy a car. He was in his second week working for the village, beginning his shift around 8 am. He was slated to finish by about mid afternoon that day. Draidyn’s mom, Christine, remembers her son’s enthusiasm as he headed off to work just a short walk from the family home.

00:06:11:28 – 00:06:34:06
Christine Wollmann: : It was a Tuesday, and Draidyn was so excited because Draidyn was starting his first day of his second week of work. And he was very excited, and he was pretty much running out the door. I was going to say to him, be careful, but he ran out so fast.

00:06:34:08 – 00:06:39:21
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: : Draidyn’s boss was Warren Peters, the village foreman. It’s a role he’s held for almost three decades.

00:06:39:24 – 00:07:11:10
Warren Peters: : Public works. Basically for our small town, it’s basically everything to do with taking care of the town. Any maintenance work, grading roads, plowing snow. There’s the water and sewer work… just take care of everything like that. I mean, we get help in summer, like student help for mowing grass and things like that. Just anything that you could think of that needs to be done in a little town, that’s my responsibility.

00:07:11:12 – 00:07:18:06
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: : On this day, Warren and Draidyn spent a few minutes in the morning discussing the teen’s responsibility for his shift before Warren headed out of town.

00:07:18:08 – 00:07:48:00
Warren Peters: : I needed to do some other work out at– like, we pump water from the North Saskatchewan River up to town here, which is about 12 km away. And that was what I was busy at that day, so I knew I wasn’t going to be back for lunch and just kind of we were making sure he was, knew what it was he had to do that day. So then once we went over all that, he went off with the mower, and I went off doing my work.

00:07:48:03 – 00:07:52:17
Co-host Deborah Tetley: : Not long after, Draidyn’s friend Karleigh Dennis popped by to say hello.

00:07:52:19 – 00:08:00:08
Karleigh Dennis: : So I’m 14. I go to Waldheim School. I’ve been friends with Draidyn basically since kindergarten.

00:08:00:10 – 00:08:10:02
Co-host Deborah Tetley: : She was in Grade 9 at the time and had lived in Laird her whole life. Her dad is the fire chief. She’s a bubbly, friendly, outgoing girl who thinks she might follow in her father’s footsteps one day.

00:08:10:09 – 00:08:20:16
Karleigh Dennis: : Obviously, after Draidyn’s incident, I kind of took interest in, like, thinking, like, maybe I should be a first responder or join the fire department like my dad did.

00:08:20:18 – 00:08:27:03
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: : I can see why, after meeting your dad and a lot of the other people who responded to this incident. What do you remember about that day?

00:08:27:05 – 00:09:04:01
Karleigh Dennis: : So, in the morning, I was doing some yard work at the school. I was specifically out by the swingset, and sometime around 10, 10:15, I saw him mowing the grass at the baseball diamond. And after I was done, I rode my quad over kind of where the baseball diamond is. And me and him talked. We just caught up on stuff, how his summer was going, what’s going on. And then he mentioned how he was off work at 2. So he asked if we wanted to hang out, and I said, yeah.

00:09:04:04 – 00:09:09:10
Co-host Deborah Tetley: : The teens had been friends for many years, as is the case with many of the kids in the small town.

00:09:09:13 – 00:09:18:10
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: : So, Karleigh, your name came up a few times when we were looking into this story — ​“Karleigh was going to meet Draidyn that day,” — that kind of thing. Just tell us more about your friendship with Draidyn.

00:09:18:12 – 00:10:01:14
Karleigh Dennis: So me and him in school, he’s a grade higher than me, so we wouldn’t hang out all the time. But we would talk, like, a lot in school, because in Laird, which is where we had our K to 8, we would talk like a lot. We were basically in the same classroom, just different grades. So but he obviously had his friends. So when we were younger we would still talk, but not that much. But when my parents started traveling and I’d stay over at his house, we hung out and talked a lot, and we would even hang out over the summer. We’d take lawn tractors and go riding around town. So that was fun.

00:10:01:16 – 00:10:30:28
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: : But today, Draidyn would be riding a different lawn tractor — the commercial-grade mower provided to him by his employer to cut grass around town. It’s one the village had been using for many years, a zero-turn hydrostatic unit with a pair of levers to independently control left- and right-side forward and backward movement. It would effectively spin on a dime if one lever was pushed forward and the other pulled back. At the front of this particular one was mounted a 72-inch mower deck. As Warren explains, it was designed and built to be a rugged machine.

00:10:31:00 – 00:10:58:02
Warren Peters: : It’s a fairly high powered– It’s a commercial mower. So, yeah, it’s not something you’d normally have in your own yard unless you’re, you know, on a large acreage or a farm or something like that. So they use them for golf courses and things like that too. So I know, yeah, small brush even and stuff like that. They’d cut stuff like that. So, yeah. I mean, mainly it’s meant for grass, but I mean it’s, it’s a pretty heavy duty machine. Yeah, yeah.

00:10:58:05 – 00:11:22:29
Co-host Deborah Tetley: : By early afternoon, Draidyn, who didn’t stop for a lunch break on this day, paused to refuel the mower, then set out to complete the final bit of his shift. His plan was to cut the grass behind the town arena adjacent to the baseball diamond before heading home to meet Karleigh. Eventually, Warren returned to the village office around the time Karleigh dropped by Draidyn’s house to meet up as planned, but there was no answer when she knocked on his door.

00:11:23:02 – 00:11:26:25
Karleigh Dennis: : So the arena is just over there. Draidyn’s house is just currently over there…

00:11:27:15 – 00:11:34:00
Co-host Deborah Tetley: : Karleigh was showing us the village streets that she recalled walking down a year earlier while looking for Draidyn.

00:11:34:03 – 00:11:56:24
Karleigh Dennis: : I thought he would, like, be showering, changing or something. So I waited a bit and I kind of like looked around and listened to see if I could hear a lawnmower. And even while I was walking home by like my house, I was trying to see if I could hear. But, before, I walked down Main Street because there’s like shortcuts where the baseball diamond is that leads behind the arena.

00:11:56:27 – 00:12:13:28
Karleigh Dennis: : And I was thinking, if I should take like, a shortcut or if I should go down Main Street. And I thought to myself, but I like, I went down Main Street because I thought it, just, I’d run into him on like the road or something that was looking around like everywhere. But I didn’t see him.

00:12:13:28 – 00:12:18:00
Co-host Deborah Tetley: : So she headed to the village office and ran into Warren.

00:12:18:03 – 00:12:30:23
Warren Peters: : When I got back to the shop and I noticed that he hadn’t been back with the mower, so I think, oh, maybe he got carried away or just lost track of time. So I didn’t think too much of it right away.

00:12:30:26 – 00:12:45:17
Karleigh Dennis: : And then as I passed the village office, which is where Warren works, I was thinking, like, if I should go knock on the door, because that was when I saw Draidyn’s bike, and then Warren walked out of the door, and that was when I just walked up and said, hey, like, Have you seen Draidyn? Do you know where he is?

00:12:45:17 – 00:12:54:01
Warren Peters: : And I oh, no, I, you know, he should be mowing grass around where the kind of ballpark/​arena area, is where this happened.

00:12:54:09 – 00:13:04:07
Karleigh Dennis: : And then he said he’d go look for him. And then I said, okay, I’ll just I’ll go home. And then, on my way back, I just kept trying to listen for a lawnmower, but I couldn’t, so I just went home.

00:13:04:09 – 00:13:17:26
Warren Peters: : So I went off to that area to see where he was. And I, you know, just looking around. I didn’t see anything right away. You can usually hear that mower going, and I couldn’t hear anything either.

00:13:17:28 – 00:13:27:23
Co-host Deborah Tetley: : Warren was not prepared for what he saw next. He didn’t spot Draidyn right away, but he did see that is hat was lying on the field, along with some Co-host Deborah Tetleyris. But that wasn’t all.

00:13:27:27 – 00:13:43:21
Warren Peters: : So I just went to the mower to check it out, and that’s when I found him there. So that was, yeah, the last thing I was expecting for sure. Yeah. That picture. It’ll stick with me for a long time, you know.

00:13:43:23 – 00:14:02:25
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: : There was Draidyn, on his back, trapped… almost completely under the lawnmower deck. Only his head and right arm were visible out the left side of the machine. One of Draidyn’s shoes was in the grass several feet away. The mower wasn’t running. Draidyn was conscious and alert, but visibly fading in and out.

00:14:02:28 – 00:14:19:00
Warren Peters: : That was just… it was, just so unreal. It was almost like a, you know, someone just set up a scene that didn’t really make sense to me right away. It didn’t click in my head that this is, you know, the first thing I actually thought was, What are you doing fooling around, you know?

00:14:19:03 – 00:14:21:29
Co-host Deborah Tetley: : Yeah. Like, I mean, am I getting punked right now? Like, is this a scene? Yeah.

00:14:21:29 – 00:15:05:12
Warren Peters: : But I mean, it didn’t take long to know that, Okay, we got to be calling 911 here, and then just, yeah, in that whole time, just kind of staying with him there. His one arm was out and he, he was holding up his arm and I would hold his hand there and I tried to talk to him and keep him alert a bit. And he seemed to be fairly alert at the time, like he could tell me, like he didn’t want me to move the mower because he thought, you know, it might cause some more damage. He thought maybe he had a punctured lung or something. So he was, you know, that aware and I, we still don’t really know how long he was there. Could have been an hour, you know, or could have been half an hour. It’s really hard to say.

00:15:05:12 – 00:15:15:15
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: : What was clear to him is that Draidyn needed help fast. In our first conversation with Warren on the phone, he recalled making that initial plea for an emergency response.

00:15:15:17 – 00:16:36:07
Warren Peters: : I mean, right away is that I was like, okay, I got to call 911 here. Just saying that we had this guy here that needed help right away, and he was caught under a mower. And I maybe didn’t even explain that great. But, you know, I mean, just trying to get the message across that we needed an ambulance there quick. So, yeah, just going through that, it’s kind of a blur now what I remember was. So we just, I mean, I was there on the phone and then I was down beside him there and just kinda was holding on his hand, and I was just kind of saying, Hang in there, bud, hang in there, you know, just, we’re getting you help here right away. And at the same time, he was, you know, we were talking a little bit that way. And he would say something like, you know, tell my mom and my brother that I love them and stuff like that. And to me it was like, oh, he’s going to he’s going to be gone here. Like, I didn’t think he was even going to make it. But he kept, you know, I kept trying to keep him alert because it did seem like he’d want to kind of fade out a little bit here and there and, yeah, I just. I didn’t know what to do. I just felt so glad, you know, when the paramedics started showing up.

00:16:36:09 – 00:16:46:16
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: : While emergency responders from Laird, Rosthern and nearby Waldheim began rushing toward the scene, an off-duty STARS crew member who lived in a neighbouring town was alerted to the situation.

00:16:46:19 – 00:16:54:15
Daniel Kobylak: : My name is Daniel Kobylak, I’m the clinical operations manager for STARS’ Saskatoon based, but more importantly, I’m a flight paramedic here in Saskatoon.

00:16:54:18 – 00:17:12:11
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: : Those were titles he held when we interviewed him for this story. Daniel has since moved on from STARS, but at the time, in addition to his regular work here, he was also a volunteer first responder in his home community, which happened to be near Laird, where Draidyn was trapped, so he knew most of the emergency responders in that area.

00:17:12:14 – 00:17:32:14
Daniel Kobylak: : I know I can hear from the team from time to time. I’m integrated with our local department there and have a good working relationship with them. So, they know that if the call is a high acuity, they can always reach out for support if I’m not physically on the call with them, and they do from time to time.

00:17:32:17 – 00:17:43:24
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: : And this was one of those times. When he got the call, Daniel and his wife just so happened to be on their way to volunteer at Field of STARS, a major fundraising event for us through the Ag in Motion Farming Expo.

00:17:43:27 – 00:18:21:25
Daniel Kobylak: : I was actually, just left home to head to Field of STARS, and I had a first responder call from our local fire department that they were responding to Draidyn’s call. I looked at the call, and the details were very vague at the time of call, but shortly after I received a call, a phone call, from one of our fire department members, who asked if I knew how long until a helicopter would arrive. And I could tell from his voice that it wasn’t a good scene at all. And I asked if he needed help. And he said, We could use all the help we can get. So I turned the car around…

00:18:21:29 – 00:18:31:26
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: : And headed back toward the scene to lend a hand. He also messaged his on-duty colleagues at the Saskatoon base, moments before they began receiving information from the STARS Emergency Link Centre.

00:18:31:28 – 00:18:49:15
Daniel Kobylak: : Just by the nature of the call, it sounds like something that STARS might get involved with but I wasn’t too sure, so I thought I’d shoot them a text and just say, hey guys, just so you know, there’s a call coming in out this way. I don’t know if you’ve received an alert or not, but I just wanted to give them a heads up.

00:18:49:18 – 00:18:54:23
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: : And now, a quick word from our Season 2 sponsor.

00:18:54:26 – 00:19:31:09
ARC Resources sponsorship spot: : As Canada’s third largest natural gas producer and the largest producer of condensate, ARC Resources is proud to play an important role in the responsible development of Canada’s energy resources. In delivering those resources, safety is the number one priority, always, and it’s that core value that makes ARC’s partnership with STARS a natural fit. It’s our shared goal to ensure that everyone arrives home safely at the end of the day. Learn more about how ARC is leading the way for safe and responsible energy development at arcre​sources​.com.

00:19:31:12 – 00:19:41:24
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: : Welcome back. Flight paramedic Glen Pilon and flight nurse Bailey Sinclair were the STARS air medical crew who were on shift. Bailey still remembers how those early moments played out.

00:19:41:26 – 00:20:41:22
STARS flight nurse Bailey Sinclair: : I had just finished my training about three weeks prior. So, to work for STARS, you have to do some pretty intensive training. It’s about a 20-week program involving a lot of in-person training as well as online training, lots of stimulation and a lot of ride along shifts. So we are provided this very excellent training, and then all of a sudden you’re placed into the world on your own. So, one of my first shifts by myself, I’m working with Glen. That morning, we had done a call, the call had gone really well. Everything was great. It was mid-afternoon and we’re sitting at the base when our manager sent us a text just saying, Hey, I’m just going to give you a heads up, I think you’re going to get a call here pretty soon. He had received a notification that there was a 16-year-old who had been run over by a lawnmower. Glen and I had spoke about it. We obviously knew as soon as we got the information that we were going to go on this call, and we wanted to help this kid out.

00:20:41:25 – 00:21:02:13
Co-host Deborah Tetley: : Not long after Warren found Draidyn, STARS was dispatched to the village of Laird for only the second time since a base was established in Saskatoon in 2012. The first mission to the village was in 2016, and while there had been other missions in nearby communities, this was only the second time we landed here.

00:21:02:16 – 00:21:08:16
STARS EMERGENCY LINK CENTRE — EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST: : STAR 11, Link Centre, you’re on pre alert for a scene call 13 nautical miles northwest of Rosthern in Laird.

00:21:08:18 – 00:21:11:12
STARS Emergency Link Centre — Pilot Alex Parra: : Link Centre, STAR 11, copies. Standby weather.

00:21:11:14 – 00:21:14:19
STARS EMERGENCY LINK CENTRE — EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST: : Standing by for weather.

00:21:14:22 – 00:21:15:26
STARS Emergency Link Centre — Flight nurse Bailey Sinclair: : STAR 11, medical.

00:21:15:29 – 00:21:38:09
STARS EMERGENCY LINK CENTRE — EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST: : Hey, guys. It’s Lindsay in the Link Centre. Just regarding this call in Laird, it’s a quick flight for you guys. You’re about a 16-minute flight. We have a 16-year-old male who was trapped under a riding lawnmower. His whole body is trapped. Possible lung puncture. Behind the arena in the middle of the field there. ALS is 25 minutes.

00:21:38:11 – 00:21:41:03
STARS Emergency Link Centre — Flight nurse Bailey Sinclair: : So, we will go as long as we’re good for weather.

00:21:41:03 – 00:21:45:14
STARS EMERGENCY LINK CENTRE — EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST: : Okay. Okay, just sending dispatch tones. Thanks, guys.

00:21:45:16 – 00:21:49:28
STARS Emergency Link Centre — Flight nurse Bailey Sinclair: : Thanks.

00:21:50:00 – 00:21:53:16
STARS EMERGENCY LINK CENTRE — EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST: : STAR 11, Link Centre. You’ve been dispatched to the scene call in the town of Laird.

00:21:53:18 – 00:21:58:10
STARS Emergency Link Centre — Pilot Alex Parra: : Copy, Link Centre. Dispatched to scene call and standing by for coordinates.

00:21:58:13 – 00:22:07:15
Co-host Deborah Tetley: : It wouldn’t be long before STARS arrived. And in that time, Draidyn lay trapped under the mower in the searing heat. Warren stayed by his side.

00:22:07:18 – 00:23:01:12
Warren Peters: : So, I just kind of held my hat over there to shade him a bit and, yeah, and that, and trying to talk with the 911 there at the same time. And until people started showing up. Because, for the 911 call, they must have– our fire department and first responders must have got the call then. And so they started showing up and just the whole timing of all that, and when people started showing up, that’s just kind of almost a bit of a blur now. So. But yeah, it seemed like quite a while at first and, you know, and just that whole thing like, I almost was, thought he was, you know, going to pass away right there for, you know, some moments. That was just, didn’t… it’s hard to process it at the time, like just, yeah.

00:23:01:14 – 00:23:17:06
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: : Draidyn’s mom, Christine, soon received a call from a fellow first responder. Christine is also a volunteer firefighter, and these are roles she’d held for many years. On this day, she was working at her paying job at a nursing home. She’d raced to a lot of emergencies over the years, but this one would be different.

00:23:17:08 – 00:24:30:07
Christine Wollmann: : I went to work and my oldest, he had a job in the city, so he was working in the city. He leaves super early. I think he got to work at like 5:30 in the morning. And then I went to work and I was in this one person’s room cleaning, and my first responder called me and told me that we were going to get a bad call with a kid with a mower behind the Laird arena. And I said, okay. And then I got the page right away. So then I, hung up and I called Draidyn’s boss and asked him if it was my kid, and he said yes, and I just said, I’m on my way. And I didn’t ask for any details. It just said on my page that a kid was caught in a lawnmower. That’s all it said. So I knew something. I didn’t know exactly what. So I put my four-way flashers on, and I started to go, and I called my…

00:24:30:09 – 00:24:51:17
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: : As Christine drove, first responders arrived at Draidyn side and quickly discovered this teenager needed urgent critical care and transport to the nearest trauma centre. Minutes later, and as Daniel had predicted, the STARS Emergency Link Centre, our communications and dispatch hub that you’ve heard actual recordings from throughout this podcast, received a request from Saskatchewan EMS to attend the scene.

00:24:51:20 – 00:25:18:06
Co-host Deborah Tetley: : While the crew in Saskatoon prepared for the mission, a crowd was gathering around Draidyn. Some were onlookers from the town, while others were helpers set to work. Among the first emergency workers on scene was Gil Maraboto, a paramedic from nearby Rosthern. The moment he received the call, he and another paramedic jumped in a ground ambulance and raced to the scene. He knew STARS was on the way, so he was going to do what he could to help until then.

00:25:18:09 – 00:25:40:05
Gil Maraboto: : The call came in saying someone was trapped under a lawnmower. That was like, I don’t know how that can happen, but I jumped in the ambulance, and actually, I was driving. I was faster than anybody there. So we we drove over and, yeah, we found that guy under the lawnmower but I don’t know how he ended up there.

00:25:40:08 – 00:25:56:03
Co-host Deborah Tetley: : Kayla Burrell was also among the first to arrive. She and her husband, Kevin, were both volunteer first responders for Waldheim Fire and Rescue for about seven years. Kayla was in her garden when she received word that she was needed. What she heard left her terrified.

00:25:56:05 – 00:26:28:20
Kayla Burrell: : My partner Phil and I went first to the hall and rolled out with our ambulance. And we zipped over to Laird. It was a seven- or eight-minute drive. And I remember I was petrified because you always know that you could get this kind of call, but you don’t know it until it happens. I said to him on the way over there – and it’s not like me, I’m usually pretty calm – but I just said, Phil, I’m scared. Like, are we actually going to find what we think we’re gonna find?

00:26:28:23 – 00:26:41:20
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: : Meanwhile, Karleigh Dennis, who you’ll recall was the first to flag that Draidyn was missing, still had no idea what had happened. She’d gone home after talking to Warren about Draidyn’s absence. Soon, though, she got a call from her dad, the village’s fire chief.

00:26:41:22 – 00:27:56:14
Karleigh Dennis: : So I walked home. I got into my house, and my dad called me and asked m where I was, and I said I was at home. And he mentioned how there has been an incident in town and that I have to stay home. I was talking with my brother because my brother was home at the time, and he had to leave for work shortly after. So I said the incident was in town, so if you see anything, just let me know. And he was, he was on the access road just outside of town, he called me and said, I seen it, I didn’t see who it was, but all I know is that it was a kid on a mower. And I just instantly knew it was Draidyn because he’s the only one on a lawnmower in town. After that, I ran down the back alley to see if I can spot the STARS helicopter, an ambulance, police or anything. And as I got to where the bar is, I seen all the police cars roll up. I see his grandpa. I see just everything piling up into behind the arena. I started crying, so I walk back and I just, all I could do was wait and just pray that he’d be okay.

00:27:56:16 – 00:28:03:03
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: : When Draidyn’s mom, Christine, arrived, having driven from her job in Rosthern, the grassy area behind the arena was bustling.

00:28:03:06 – 00:29:02:12
Christine Wollmann: : And then when I got there, I saw that Waldheim’s trucks were there and the ambulance. So I thought, okay, good, there’s somebody here helping. And then I parked outside. My mom – and my mom was crying, and I told my mom, I’ll be right back, I love you, it’ll be okay. And I ran past the fire truck. And then that’s when I saw Draidyn’s body. All I saw was just his head. His whole body was underneath that mower deck. It was like, I was not expecting to see that, and I started, I broke down. I started to cry, and I thought to myself that I am burying my kid. He’s in a million pieces, knowing that there’s three blades underneath that mower deck.

00:29:02:14 – 00:29:06:01
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: : Next time on Mission Ready…

00:29:06:03 – 00:29:23:24
Gil Maraboto: : So I put my hand underneath and, like, I feel like that’s something, like, hard. Like all the blades, like. Oh, yeah, the blade is inside his chest. And I feel his arm, like, his left arm was like, into pieces, like, Okay, that’s not good.

00:29:23:26 – 00:29:34:04
Dr. Segun Oyedokun: : So the challenge now is, how do you remove the lawnmower from the patient without removing the foreign body that is stuck in the body?

00:29:34:06 – 00:29:39:10
Co-host Deborah Tetley: : Mission ready, presented by ARC Resources, is produced in-house by me, Co-host Deborah Tetleyorah Tetley.

00:29:39:14 – 00:29:45:04
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: : And me, Co-host Lyle Aspinall Aspinall. Watch video clips from this season at STARS​.ca/​m​i​s​s​i​o​n​ready.

00:29:45:06 – 00:30:02:01
Co-host Deborah Tetley: : Mission Ready contains original theme music by Kaiya Gamble, whose dad was a long time STARS pilot and whose mom was once a transport physician. Check her out at kaiyagam​ble​.com. Please rate and review Mission Ready wherever you found it, and be sure to tell your friends about it. Also, check out Season 1.

00:30:02:04 – 00:30:08:14
Co-host Lyle Aspinall: : Want to be a STARS ally? Get involved and support our mission by visiting STARS​.ca. Until next time, thanks for listening.