Lending a Helping Hand: Wadeson saves the day

In the movie Independence Day, the character played by Bill Pullman has a line towards the end of the movie, “Gentlemen, lets plow the road.” This winter the people that work for the city, county and state have done more plowing than a farmer during planting season. Those plowed roads help us get from point A to point B safely. For one family, the road was being plowed while they were trying to get from point A to point B. Point A was the emergency room at CHI Mercy Health

Hospital in Valley City and point B was the Jamestown Regional Medical Center. To complicate matters, the Interstate was already closed do to heavy snow, blowing and drifting.

Late in the evening on February 22nd, Calahan Burchill, a senior at Valley City High School, was having stomach pains, pains that sent the young man to the emergency room at CHI. “We got to the ER in Valley City,” Casey

Burchill, Calahan’s dad remembered. “That is where he was diagnosed.” Calahan had an inflamed appendix and they knew they had to get him to Jamestown Regional Medical Center before it got worse. But the interstate had been closed since 5 p.m. that night. So the call went out to state radio, which in turn got a hold of the North Dakota Department of Transportation in Valley City. After a couple of calls, Matt Maresh reached out to Mike Wadeson and asked if he was willing, and able, to take on the challenge. Mike answered, “absolutely.” Wadeson shares, “Kent Kosse,

NDDOT maintenance coordinator, called me and gave me all the details. I set it up with Steve Abrahamson who was driving the ambulance where to meet me and kind of what to watch for, if I hit my brakes - you’re probably gonna want to stop - and we went from there.”

Originally, a ambulance was not going to be used. “The only way they were going to let us go is by paramedic, ” Burchill said. Wadeson agreed, taking the ambulance was the right thing to do. “My thought process was at least if we get stuck, we have medical there on the highway,” Wadeson said. As a lieutenant with the Valley City Fire Department and a firefighter

for almost 13 years Wadeson has seen his fair share of accidents and bad situations. “I kind of live for this stuff, I like to help people, “Wadeson adds. “It’s a lot of the reason why I became a fireman was to help the community I call home. I grew up 30 miles south of here, so its (Valley City) always been home. Its a nice way to give back.”

They left for Jamestown. In normal conditions, the drive to Jamestown would take about 30 minutes. “We left for Jamestown at 3:30 a.m. and got there about 5 a.m.,” Burchill said. “We are so very appreciative,” Burchill adds. “Its really nice that someone was willing to do that for someone else.”

Wadeson says this was one of the

toughest runs he has had. “It was definitely a run. In my five years here we’ve had a handful of really sketchy situations and this was probably within the top five.”

Oh and the story does end happily. Calahan arrived safety and had the emergency appendectomy and all is good now.

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a hero as “a person who is admired for great or brave acts or fine qualities.” I’m sure the Burchills and others would use that definition to describe what Wadeson did that blustery early morning. But as far as Wadeson is concerned “I was just doing my job, doing what I love.”