On the night of Sept. 23, Jonathon Hock, a Fergus native currently living in Toronto, was heading home when he came across Damien Waddell injured on the ground after the handlebars on his bicycle broke and punctured his left leg.
“My first instinct was to hop off my bike and make sure he was okay. It was like I was operating in automatic,” Hock said.
When Hock, 24, reached Waddell there was already a woman with him calling 9-1-1.
Hock used a woman’s scarf to apply pressure to the wound and try and stop the bleeding. Shortly after, another cyclist arrived.
He and Hock worked together to try and stop the bleeding. The second cyclist asked someone to get a towel from a nearby restaurant. He and Hock cinched it near Waddell’s groin and both held his leg up until someone gave them a box to prop it up on.
“It was certainly a team effort,” said Hock, who was trained in first aid when he was 15, but hasn’t been re-certified since.
“If asked prior of what to do in that situation I’m not sure I would’ve known. It’s interesting to see how that just sticks with you,” said Hock.
Finally the ambulance arrived and Waddell was taken to St. Michael’s Hospital, where Dr. Mark Wheatcroft, a surgeon, examined Waddell and found he had punctured a major artery in his leg – the profunda femoris – and needed a massive blood transfusion.
Waddell was hospitalized for about five days.
There is still a hole in Waddell’s leg, “as big as an eye socket” Waddell told the Toronto Star. But “it’s getting better. I’ve got a bit of a limp but that should go away, and I’ll have some really cool scars.”
Waddell received the contact information from the police for Hock and the other cyclist who had helped save his life and called to thank them.
