‘It’s a blessing’: Man praises work of first responders for helping save his life

CHESTERFIELD, Va. (WWBT/Gray News) - A man in Virginia paid a special visit to the first responders who saved his life.

William Jessee severely injured his legs on Feb. 27 in an accident.

“I didn’t know how bad it was,” he said.

Chesterfield first responders Andrew Kaiser, Aaron Lape, and Jeremy Stone were called to the scene to help that day.

“It went from sounding pretty bad to sounding pretty terrible,” Lape said. “We also had to make decisions pretty quickly.”

One of those decisions was to give Jessee blood at the scene, which made him the first patient in the county to receive this as part of a new ground transport pilot program that allows first responders to administer blood to trauma patients before they arrive at the hospital.

“Implementing the blood program and being able to get him a unit of blood before the hospital was the best thing for him,” Stone said.

Jessee believes it made a life-saving difference.

“It’s a blessing ... I hope they keep it going because it saved my life,” Jessee said.

Three months later, Jessee is continuing his recovery and says he considers the first responders who saved his life part of his family.

“You take life for granted so much, and these guys did their job to save my life. It means everything to me,” he said.

The men were able to hold a reunion this week with Jessee thanking the first responders in person.

“Seeing him walk around today is kind of amazing. Nobody thought that day that he was ever going to walk again,” Lape said. “Just to see that we get to make a big difference in somebody’s life is just rewarding.”