Nicole Smithback felt her “entire world” stop when she received a call May 29 that her husband, Michael, was unresponsive and being flown via MedFlight to UW Hospital in Madison.
That’s what she wrote in a message thanking Baraboo District Ambulance Service paramedics for their life-saving measures after a car accident that caused life threatening injuries for her husband.
Nicole, a healthcare administrator in the Madison area, said she was glad that responders “arrived swiftly” and “acted immediately” as Michael was unresponsive and barely breathing.
“You knew he was in desperate trouble,” she wrote. “He was admitted to UW Health Emergency Department as a Level 1 Trauma head injury ‘John Doe’ patient, but please make no mistake, he is more than a John Doe. He is Michael Smithback, and he’s the kindest soul that I’ve ever known.”
Many would not have survived such head trauma, but thanks to the efforts of four BDAS paramedics, Michael lived through the next five months.