Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
OGDEN — An off-duty nurse is being credited for helping save a young woman from having her foot amputated following a serious crash.
On June 29, Matt and Aspen Anderson were driving from their home in Brigham City down to Ogden when they were involved in a serious motorcycle crash on U.S. 89 near 2600 South.
"I was in the left-hand traffic lane, and then as we were going down the highway, the brake lights turned off, and the car just turned in front of me," Matt Anderson said.
He said he tried to avoid the car without dropping the bike, but when he looked back at his daughter, he saw her foot was where the bike and the car collided.
"She just started yelling from behind, 'Dad, my foot, my foot!' I was able to look down and see it behind me," Matt Anderson said. "Half her foot was gone, and the back of the bike was twisted in half."
While Matt Anderson couldn't see how bad the injury was, Carrie Becker, an off-duty emergency department nurse at Ogden Regional Medical Center, could.
"So, I had just left my house, and I saw Aspen on the side of the road, and I could tell she was injured," Becker said.
Becker turned her car around, stopped on the road, and began to help the injured 19-year-old.
"She had a partially amputated foot," she said. "The first thing I found was a scarf on a lady that had also stopped — I used that as a tourniquet until the police officer got there."
Becker stayed with Aspen Anderson as she was transported to a local hospital by ambulance.
"She saved my life as well as my daughter's as far as I'm concerned," Matt Anderson said. "Without her, I think I would have lost it."
The nurse even left her car at the scene.
"I was just trying to keep her calm, and I was holding her hand, and I got in the back of the ambulance," Becker said.
Weeks later, Aspen Anderson returned to the hospital to meet the person who helped save her from a worse outcome.
Aspen Anderson said she remembers bits and pieces of that day, but Becker's face is crystal clear in her memory.
"I kept thinking when you were there, 'How did I get, how the heck did I get an ER nurse?'" she said.
Becker typically never sees the patients who cycle through the emergency room doors again, so seeing Aspen Anderson after the rescue was special to her.
"For somebody to say that they talked about me for days and that it affected their life in any way, it's pretty amazing," Becker said.
Doctors said Aspen Anderson will have a long road to recovery and might not have full use of her foot for some time, but she is still in good spirits.
"It was really great to see that she still has a great attitude about it," Becker said.
"She could have balance issues later," Aspen's mother added.
"I don't think I could walk straight to begin with, so I don't think it's going to make a difference," Aspen Anderson joked.
Matt Anderson is thankful that Becker showed up when she did. Becker said that as a nurse, she's never truly off the clock.
"I just don't think we think about it or realize it, or even think that it's anything out of the ordinary for us to do," Becker said.
