[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 73 (Friday, June 9, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5677-S5678]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      ALLIGATOR ALLEY CAR ACCIDENT

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I take a few moments to share an account of 
an event that occurred nearly 3\1/2\ years ago. The story I tell is a 
very tragic story. At the time, it received a lot of media coverage, 
but because of a recent fortuitous occurrence, it has again become 
relevant.
  Each year around Christmas, some time before, usually afterwards, my 
family, Karyn and our three boys, and my extended family, have a 
tradition of going to Fort Lauderdale, FL, a tradition that began well 
over 40 years ago by my parents and my own brothers and sisters--I have 
two brothers and two sisters--and their children, and usually, almost 
always, several friends from a number of those individuals spend time 
together enjoying the

[[Page S5678]]

occasion, being together as a family, reliving old memories and, along 
the way, creating new ones.
  On New Year's Day in 2003, I had taken my sons, Jonathan and Bryan, 
two of my three sons, on a trip to the Everglades. It was to spend the 
day in the Everglades, showing them the beauty of that wonderful area 
and the rich tradition that is reflected by the beauty there and by 
nature. We had a wonderful day.
  On the way back--and this is west of Fort Lauderdale--on the way back 
in, we were heading down what is Interstate 75 west in that part of 
Florida. It runs directly east back to Fort Lauderdale. That whole 
track is known as Alligator Alley. It was an ordinary day. We had a 
wonderful day together as a family. It was a great start to a new 
year--again, it was New Year's Day--an opportunity to share with family 
the beauty of that environment, the gorgeous, wonderful, magnificent 
part of this country.
  As we were talking about events of the day as we were driving, 
suddenly traffic came to a halt. Just ahead, I saw red lights flashing. 
We pulled onto the median. I came out of the car because something 
clearly had happened, and it had just happened several moments earlier.
  Walking down the median, I approached a horrific scene. It was a 
little bit in the distance, 100 yards away. There was a crumpled red 
car on its side, an SUV. There were men, women, and children who 
clearly had been thrown, hurled from that vehicle, a distance of 25, 
50, even 75 yards. I remember looking out--again, it was a beautiful 
day, a sunny day--and as with any event such as this that occurs so 
quickly, so unexpectedly, we saw the streaming smoke coming from an 
overturned vehicle with an open door. We saw a crushed car. We did not 
see another car near it. Clearly, the car had flipped. Then we saw 
these bodies that were hurled, thrown, from this vehicle a great 
distance in this beautiful green median. It was a surreal environment.
  It was not immediately clear to me how many people had been injured, 
but the fact you could tell there were several people around the car, 
and there were at least four people in the median over this distance, I 
knew that what I was witnessing was clearly devastating. It was 
serious.
  At that time, there were no other health personnel on the scene. As a 
doctor, and as one who has spent days and years in emergency rooms and 
in operating rooms, in terms of the immediate response, it comes pretty 
natural in terms of evaluation, triage, and resuscitation. The real 
challenge was being out there, and you saw over a distance of 75 yards 
four people who had such a traumatic accident. Two adults had climbed 
out of the vehicle itself. There were four individuals--four, what 
appeared to be lifeless, motionless bodies, women and children, two 
children and two adults--who lay in the median.
  Lara Spalding, whom I did not know at the time--I will come back to 
Lara in just a little bit--then was a nursing student at Nashville--
this is the irony of it--Nashville's Belmont University, and actually 
worked in the emergency room there with some of my colleagues back at 
Vanderbilt, where I worked for 10 years as a cardio surgeon, heart 
surgeon, trauma surgeon.
  She later described the scene that day:

       It was awful. It looked like someone had dropped six people 
     from a 5-story building.

  At that point in time when I was there--and I didn't know Lara at the 
time--she was there either at the same time or a few seconds 
afterwards, there were no other doctors on the scene. Alligator Alley 
being so far out at that time--although it has changed, thank 
goodness--the emergency personnel had to come from within Fort 
Lauderdale to come out along one stretch of highway. It was probably 
25, 30 miles, so health personnel were not yet on the scene.
  When that sort of thing happens, you know your immediate 
responsibility needs to be to assess the situation, triage their care, 
and to initiate resuscitation appropriately, but the problem is people 
were scattered over a 75-yard distance.
  I did what I could; that was, rapidly assess the ABCs in terms of 
resuscitation, in getting airways, and when the medical personnel 
started to arrive, both by helicopter, trauma teams, relief teams and 
ambulances started coming in, help them triage and direct them to the 
people who needed the care the most. And then for individuals 
conducting the appropriate resuscitation, of establishing an airway, 
making sure they were breathing and receiving CPR.
  In that sort of event, it is important to get someone on the 
telephone to coordinate overall, so I spent a lot of time talking to 
911 and the hospitals that coordinated the personnel, and as the 
paramedics arrived by helicopter, was able to say: You are on the 
ground now. Don't waste your time here; that is taken care of. And they 
were able to go to another patient.
  I mentioned all that because I do think it is important for people to 
participate. Lara, at the time, was with one of the patients, cradling 
them, giving appropriate encouragement and instruction to personnel who 
were arriving who very much appreciate her heroism in stopping along 
the side of the road and assisting.
  In addition to Ms. Spalding, there was an off-duty paramedic and five 
others who also stopped to help. Ms. Spalding, Lara Spalding--I will 
come back to her again shortly--at that time was a nursing student but 
before had been an Army medic who had worked at Vanderbilt University 
Trauma Center. She was of huge assistance in terms of the triage, 
assisting the paramedics.
  I remember her going over to one boy who had a mangled leg. She 
cradled his head and tried to keep him comfortable. She later said:

       You're prepared for this when you're in a trauma center . . 
     . but not when you're driving down the road.

  I also want to comment on the men and women of the Broward County 
Sheriff's Office Division of Fire Rescue, particularly Incident 
Commander Chris Koski and his firefighters who also came on the scene 
and were so professional, so experienced. They deserve tremendous 
credit.
  As far as the rescue operators, the first responders out there do not 
get enough credit. They are out there 24 hours a day responding to 
these incidents. They responded in such a quiet, humble, and heroic 
way. They all deserve our gratitude. They are heroes, not just for this 
particular day but for the work they do every day. That is what they do 
every single day and night.
  I do remember the people whom we could not help: Felicienne Kali, a 
beautiful 11-year-old girl whom we were unable to resuscitate, died at 
the scene. Her 14-year-old brother, Felix Kali, unfortunately, died 
later that day. Shadia Rene, a 20-year-old half-sister of the two, we 
were able to resuscitate but died 3 days later at the hospital. The two 
parents lived. A family friend who was in the automobile also lived.
  After the tragic events of that day, I went back to see them the next 
day at the hospital, to console and to comfort them as much as one can 
in that time of tragedy.
  There is little anyone can say directly to a family or to people 
involved to address such grief, but I do pray for their family to this 
day.
  I clearly wish there was more that could have been done in response, 
despite the heroic actions of so many of the paramedical personnel, 
first responders, and Lara Spalding. I keep mentioning Lara Spalding 
because it was 2 years ago that my staff ran into her and talked to 
her. She was at that time working as a nurse at the Johns Hopkins 
University Hospital. In May, she took a new job. Today, she works here 
in the Nation's Capitol. I didn't know this until just a few days ago. 
She works in the Office of the Attending Physician. I was unaware of 
that and then had the opportunity to learn about that last week. I am 
delighted that she is here in the Nation's Capitol. I know she will be 
of great service to the U.S. Congress and to our Nation. While I would 
have gladly recommended her based specifically on her actions that day, 
I clearly had no role in her actually being hired but do appreciate her 
service.

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