By George Chidi
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Copyright 2007 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
ATLANTA — After five years of patching people up after traffic accidents, Jason Simms learned the hard way about life on the other side of the medical kit.
Simms is credited with saving the life of a 3-year-old girl last year after her mother’s car collided with Simms’ ambulance. Simms kept the child alive while he himself was still bleeding from the accident.
Gwinnett County awarded a commendation for valor to the firefighter and medical technician at a recent Gwinnett Center ceremony and banquet.
The Fire Department honored public safety employees and civilians for acts of courage.
Among them were five teens who helped a couple who got in trouble while tubing on the Chattahoochee River.
The valor award is one of the top recognitions bestowed by the department.
“Jason is one of our best people,” said Lt. Thomas Rutledge, a spokesman for the department. “Firefighters are unique people. He did what any firefighter or EMT would have done.”
But the New Jersey native and former Marine infantryman demurred at talk of heroism.
“Heroism is about how someone looks at you,” Simms said. “I don’t think of myself as a hero.”
Simms and his partner, Allan Dalrymple, had just returned from the hospital during a Saturday morning shift last April.
Simms was driving on Steve Reynolds Boulevard near International Boulevard.
On the other side of the road, a 1999 Chrysler Sebring was heading toward them, out of control. The car crashed into the front of their ambulance, slamming both medics around in their seat belts. The ambulance sideswiped a Toyota Corolla. The Sebring and the ambulance ground to a halt.
“For a couple of seconds, it’s just a haze,” Simms said. “My main thought was to keep the ambulance on the road.”
Simms looked to his right. Dalrymple was complaining about leg and chest pain, he said. Simms was banged up as well. His door wouldn’t open. They radioed for help and crawled out the passenger-side door.
Simms hobbled across the street to the Sebring, he said. Inside, he found three people --- a young man, a young woman and a 3-year-old baby girl. The girl wasn’t conscious but was alive.
Simms didn’t stop to consider his own injuries, he said. “I just focused on the young mother and her child.”
Both adults in the car — Doryan Gadson-Bennett, 20, of Lawrenceville, and Sharonda Willis, 19, of Lilburn — were later pronounced dead at the scene.
Simms held the girl’s airway open and waited for help.
“It seemed like a while, but it was probably just a few minutes,” he said.
When other firefighters arrived, Simms could better assess his own injuries. His hand had been cut open from the accident. His right shin was bruised badly. So was his chest.
He found out later that he had broken a rib.
The little girl survived.