Valley Independent Sentinel

Off-Duty EMT Helped Save Teen In Shelton Crash

by Jodie Mozdzer | Jan 9, 2012 7:40 pm

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Posted to: Shelton, awesome.

Kevin “Squeaks” Hazlett crawled into a crumpled car on Jan. 1 after a gruesome accident on Shelton Avenue.

The 45-year-old EMT was off duty, but was able to use his skills and his hands to help keep the woman alive while they waited for emergency crews to arrive on scene.

How? He simply held the woman’s head upright so she could breathe.

Angelica Nimaltseva, 18, had crashed her car into a tree on Shelton Avenue at about 10 a.m. She was trapped in the front seat — badly injured and unconscious. Her head had slumped forward, cutting off her airway. The car was mangled around her, trapping her.

Hazlett drove up to the scene about 30 seconds after the crash and immediately got to work.

He called to make sure the fire department was on the way with its jaws of life tools. The car was crushed so badly, Hazlett knew it would require tools to get the young woman out.

Then he worked his way into the car.

He couldn’t get the driver’s side or the front passenger side door to open. But Hazlett was able to eventually pry open the back passenger door, and crawl into the backseat.

From there, he could see the young woman was not breathing. So he did the only thing the cramped space and his lack of tools would allow: He lifted her head to open the airways — and waited.

“After a few seconds, she was able to breathe again,” Hazlett said.

Two companies from the Shelton Fire Department responded, along with the Echo Hose Ambulance team, which is where Hazlett works as a paid EMT. Hazlett is also a volunteer for the Echo Hose Hook and Ladder Co. 1.

It took 15 minutes to pry open the car and get Nimaltseva out, according to emergency radio reports. Nimaltseva, a Middletown resident, was the only person in the car.

Based on her injuries, and the way the car was crushed, Hazlett thought the woman wouldn’t survive.

He’s been to countless car accidents in his 21 years as a firefighter, but this one hit home.

“You just get to thinking — ‘Did she make it? Is she going to make it?’ I was wondering for days,” Hazlett said.

Then he saw a news update in the Valley Indy. The woman was listed in “fair” condition at Yale-New Haven Hospital.

“I was stunned,” Hazlett said. “The way when I seen her leaving, and when I talked to everybody afterward, we thought for sure she wasn’t going to make it.”

So Hazlett called the woman at the hospital. She was groggy, Hazlett said, but talked with him briefly on the phone, thanking him for his help.

“It was a huge relief when I finally talked to her,” Hazlett said.

Nimaltseva is still recovering from multiple broken bones at Yale-New Haven Hospital. When reached Monday, Nimaltseva was still recovering and in too much pain to talk.

The accident is still under investigation by the Shelton Police Traffic Division, according to Shelton police Lt. Robert Kozlowsky. The department hasn’t issued any tickets as of Monday.

Echo Hose Ambulance Chief Mike Chaffee called Hazlett a “great EMT.”

“If anybody was going to be hurt like that in an accident, he’s the one you want rolling up on you,” Chaffee said Monday.

Another Echo Hose EMT, who lives near the accident, also approached the crash while off duty, Chaffee said.

“That’s how our members roll,” Chaffee said. “You see something, you do something.”

Hazlett was a little uncomfortable to talk about the accident: He was just doing his job, Hazlett said.

“We do this because we love doing it,” Chaffee said, explaining Hazlett’s reluctance to talk about the accident. “Not for the pat on the back.”

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