Volunteer EMTs save shocked worker

Update: According to a family member, Wilson is in full recovery after returning home Monday. He is still nursing a hole in his foot caused by the electricity, but is doing well.

Hebron volunteer emergency workers brought a Kansas truck driver back to life Thursday, April 4, after he was found without a pulse near Bruning.

Christopher J. Wilson, 23, of Concordia, was severely shocked after coming in contact with a power line at the intersection of Road 6600 and Road W near Bruning. According to Thayer County Sheriff David Lee, it is not clear if the electricity arced from the power line to a boom truck, or if an irrigation pipe the driver was helping load onto a semi came in contact with the line. Either way, Wilson received an electrical shock that stopped his pulse.

A second person working with Wilson called 911 and reported the emergency at 12:27 p.m. HVFD Chief B.J. Linton said the Hebron department is currently covering that part of Thayer County due to a shortage of manpower in Bruning, which is why Hebron received the call.

HVFD members Chris Huber and Cory Clark were eating lunch at Belvidere when the call came in and raced to the scene where they found Wilson unresponsive and without a pulse. Linton said they immediately began CPR until the Hebron ambulance arrived. The emergency workers then shocked Wilson with a defibrillator, once, to get his heart and pulse going.

Wilson was taken to Thayer County Health Services and once stabilized, flown by air ambulance to St. Elizabeth Regional Burn Center in Lincoln for further examination. Sheriff Lee said he had not heard about the driver’s condition as of Friday.

Wilson, working for a farmer, was loading pivot pipe stacked on the northeast corner of the intersection when the accident occurred.