Driver Tammy League credits her supervisor, Terry Randolph, for providing her with emergency response training.
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Driver’s training saves ailing man
Tammy League
Putnam County Schools
Cookeville, Tenn.
In late September, school bus driver Tammy League’s emergency response skills were put to the test at her family’s Hurricane Hollow Apple Orchard.
League was washing apples when her mother yelled for her to help Eddie Thompson, one of the orchard’s regular customers.
“I ran over there and there was blood gushing out of his leg,” League says.
Thompson’s wife told her that he had recently undergone bypass surgery on an artery in his right leg, and it had ruptured.
League says she went to get gloves and towels from her bus and returned to Thompson, who had two fingers in the wound to try and stop the bleeding.
“I told him to lie on the ground because I knew that he needed to get the pressure off his leg,” she adds. “I knew that I needed to stay off of the stint and stay on top of the wound, so I applied pressure to it until paramedics arrived.”
League was later informed that Thompson had lost nearly half of his blood by the time she began assisting him, and that if she had applied pressure to the area below the wound, Thompson would have lost his leg.
League is accustomed to handling medical emergencies: She previously worked for a fire department, and she cares for a family member who has health problems.
She says she was calm during the incident with Thompson, and she appreciates that Terry Randolph, transportation supervisor at Putnam County Schools, provides training for her and her colleagues.
(The county’s emergency medical services personnel train the district’s support staff on emergency procedures; the drivers are also AED- and CPR-certified.)
For his part, Randolph speaks highly of League.
“I’m really proud of her for being able to perform the way she did,” he says. “Tammy has high integrity. She’s dedicated and loyal to the kids, and she makes my job easier — she’s one of the best.”
He also notes that League, who has worked for the school district for 27 years, was recognized by the board as well as the Putnam County Commissioner’s Office for her actions.
— KELLY ROHER