“I am living proof that God still performs miracles.”
Donnie Simmons of Blackshear shares that statement with everyone who will listen these days.
He believes it with all his heart.
He credits Blackshear Police Officers Jason Ragsdale and Jacob Goble with saving his life after he was severely injured in a home accident about a month ago.
Simmons was working with a saw in his yard Friday, Jan. 27, attempting to remove a metal pole that once anchored his satellite dish.
“The saw got hung up in the metal and kicked back on me cutting my left wrist,” he said.
The wound was bleeding uncontrollably and was spurting with each beat of his heart.
“I knew I was in trouble and needed to get help — quick,” Simmons recalls.
His wife of 47 years, Linda, was inside the home and he called for her to bring him a trash bag and towel to wrap the wound and also to catch the blood.
“He told me that he needed it to put his hand in and I thought he had cut his hand off,” said Mrs. Simmons.
She called their daughter, Kendra Lau, who was in line to pick up her children at the middle school. She rushed home and picked up her father and raced off down County Farm Road in a blur headed for the hospital.
It was then Simmons’s wound began to take its toll on his body.
“I was so sleepy,” he said. “I could not keep my eyes open.”
Simmons said he doesn’t remember much of anything else after that point.
Officer Jason Ragsdale had arrived a little early that afternoon for school traffic duty.
That’s when he saw the vehicle come screeching to a halt behind him and Lau jumped out screaming.
“I knew right away there was some kind of trouble and someone needed help,” he said.
Assessing the situation, Ragsdale sprang into action and retrieved a tourniquet kit from his patrol car.
The tourniquets were provided as part of “Stop the Bleed” Training implemented several years ago in response to the numerous mass shooting/mass casualty incidents occurring around the country. Local first responders received training through the Stop the Bleed program.
Soon, Officer Jacob Goble arrived to assist with the rescue effort.
The officers used two tourniquet kits to stop the bleeding.
“We had so many people who came to our aid,” said Mrs. Simmons “I can’t thank them all enough. God put them all in the right place at the right time to help us and to save Donnie’s life. I am forever grateful for all of them.”
The group of rescuers also included a local pastor who began to pray for Simmons.
Pierce County’s EMS units were out on calls, but an ambulance soon arrived and transported Simmons to Memorial Satilla Health. Simmons arrived at the emergency room in very critical condition.
Because of the severity of the injury and the need for trauma center services, Simmons was then life-flighted to Orange Park Medical Center in Orange Park, FL.
Doctors in the trauma center’s emergency room soon determined the saw had cut the artery in the wrist.
Surgeons were able to seal off the bleed. Simmons had lost three pints of blood and was immediately given transfusions.
“Out of all that, I only had three stitches,” he said.
Simmons is expected to make a full recovery. He has had the opportunity to thank Ragsdale and his rescuers.
“(Officer) Ragsdale is my guardian angel,” Simmons recalls. “He saved my life. I know that. How do you thank him for that? There is never enough I can do for Officer Ragsdale.”
Simmons says he is thankful to have another chance at life.
“I am convinced that I would not have made it to U.S. Highway 84, much less the hospital, without the aid of those who helped me. I thank God for my miracle.”
