Norridgewock woman searches for 'guardian angel' who pulled her husband from wreck
Nov. 1—NORRIDGEWOCK — This Halloween was Katie and Jessy Forney's third wedding anniversary. Katie was making dinner early Thursday night before taking her son trick-or-treating with Jessy.
Jessy was on his way home from work early and gave Katie a call to say how excited he was for that evening. Less than five minutes after they hung up, Katie got a call from a stranger.
"A woman I didn't know called me and said she was with my husband on the side of the road. He had been in an accident," she recalls. "I dropped my dinner, I put my dogs in the house, and I ran down the road. He got in an accident just up the road from my house."
When she arrived at the scene, she found Jessy's Chevy Tahoe flung from the shoulder of the road and into the woods beside U.S. Route 2, also known as the Skowhegan Road. The car was almost unrecognizable.
Norridgewock Fire Department Lt. Kyle Mullin described the damage as "pretty significant," saying that the vehicle "went off the road, hit a pine tree, and the trunk of the tree kicked out and landed on top of the SUV" before a number of spot fires spread around the crash site.
Jessy was conscious and lucid but severely injured. Blood was gushing from his hand and head and cuts covered most of his body. Doctors would later determine he suffered a neck fracture, broken left rib and a number of deep puncture wounds all over his body.
Several large tree trunks had fallen on top of the vehicle, nearly flattening its passenger side. The engine had just caught on fire when she arrived, and was spreading to the brush beside the vehicle.
"The car was catching on fire as I was running up to him, and that's when we helped him stand up and moved him to another man's truck who had stopped to help," Katie said. "That old man, it turns out, saved his life not five minutes before then. He was like a guardian angel."
Jessy had lost consciousness shortly before the crash, Katie said, and was "out cold" once he veered off the highway. He might not have gained consciousness had that man not stopped to help.
"All Jessy remembers is that he went out cold turkey about 200 yards before going off the road," Katie says. "He woke up and heard a man saying 'Can you get out?' And he realized that he's in the truck, off the road, blood on the airbag, a huge tree on top of the car next to him."
The man just happened to be driving behind Jessy when he saw the crash unfold. He ran to the driver-side door, quickly unbuckled Jessy, pulled the airbag out of the way and pulled him out of the car just moments before it became partially engulfed in flames.
"The whole driver's side was catching on fire. If he hadn't been pulled out, he would've been right in that driver seat," she said "He's very lucky to be alive. The whole passenger side is smushed in. It's gone. It's so lucky nobody else was with him, I don't even want to think about what would've happened if me or my son were in there with him."
First responders from the Norridgewock Fire Department and Somerset County Sheriff's Office remained on the scene for several hours to clean up the heavy damage and small fires that had spread around the crash site, according to Somerset County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Mike Mitchell.
"Vegetation, some wildlife, brush had been lit on fire," Mitchell said. "The firefighters were there for a couple hours."
Jessy was taken by ambulance to Skowhegan's Redington-Fairview General Hospital before being released Friday morning. He is expected to make a full recovery, Katie says, though he will have to wear a neck brace for the next 12 weeks.
His survival is just as miraculous as it is symbolic, Katie says.
"We got married three years ago on Halloween at a cemetery in Bangor. It's our favorite holiday," she said. "The fact he survived, the fact he's going to recover — I do believe somebody from heaven was watching over my husband, even on Halloween."
Katie just wishes she knew the name of the "guardian angel" who stopped to help Jessy.
Katie didn't think to ask his name amid the panic at the scene, and could only identify him by the white truck he drove. She made a post on the "Norridgewock Neighborhood Watch and Information" Facebook page in an attempt to find him, but so far has been unsuccessful.
"That man, I wish I knew his name. I just want to say thank you," she said. "He pulled him out. I don't know if my husband would be alive if it weren't for him."
Copy the Story Link
