Tractor Incident in Giles County

ON MAY 27TH AT 1:34P.M. A 911 CALL CAME INTO THE GILES COUNTY 911 OFFICE. RANDY SANDERS, A 67YOA NASHVILLE RESIDENT WAS BUSHHOGGING SOME PROPERTY LOCATED IN THE 1400 BLOCK OF WHITT RD. MR. SANDERS WAS ON A STEEP HILL WHEN THE TRACTOR OVERTURNED AND FLIPPED DOWN THE HILL SEVERAL TIMES AND CAME TO A REST AT THE BOTTOM NEAR A POND. MR. SANDERS WAS GRAVELY INJURED WITH A LIFE[1]THREATENING INJURY TO HIS LEG. GILES’S COUNTY 911 DISPATCHER BRANDI CHAPMAN (ALSO A GILES COUNTY EMT) TOOK THE CALL AND BEGAN GIVING INSTRUCTIONS TO MR. SANDERS TO USE HIS SHIRT AS A MAKESHIFT TOURNIQUET TO STOP OR SLOW DOWN THE BLEEDING. GILES COUNTY DEPUTY ERIK SMITH WAS THE FIRST UNIT ON THE SCENE AND IMMEDIATELY APPLIED A TOURNIQUET TO MR. SANDERS LEG ABOVE THE MAKESHIFT ONE AND STOPPED THE BLEEDING. OTHER DEPUTIES SOON ARRIVED, DEPUTY NICHOLAS OLIVER, JOHN YOKLEY AND SAVANNAH CHAVIERS ALONG WITH THP TROOPER NATHAN METHVIN. EMS ARRIVED SHORTLY AFTER AND WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF SOME NEIGHBORS, FIRST RESPONDERS WERE ABLE TO GET MR. SANDERS BACK UP THE HILL AND TO A HELICOPTER WHERE HE WAS FLOWN TO VANDERBILT FOR MEDICAL CARE. DUE TO THE QUICK ACTIONS OF DISPATCHER BRANDI CHAPMAN AND DEPUTY ERIK SMITH, MR. SANDERS SURVIVED THE ORDEAL. MR. SANDERS STILL HAS A LONG RECOVERY AHEAD, BUT THE PROGNOSIS IS THAT MR. SANDERS WILL MAKE A FULL RECOVERY AND HIS LEG WAS ABLE TO BE SAVED. SHERIFF HELTON WOULD LIKE TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE OUTSTANDING WORK OF ALL OF GILES COUNTY’S FIRST RESPONDERS WORKING AS A TEAM TO PROTECT AND SERVE THEIR COMMUNITY AND PARTICULARLY THE QUICK ACTION OF GILES COUNTY SHERIFF’S DEPUTY ERIK SMITH.

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