He and his crew didn’t need a 911 call that night. They were already on another emergency across the highway when the helicopter went down.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento Fire Captain Peter Vandersluis was one of the first people to reach the medical helicopter crash on Sacramento’s Highway 50, a moment he says will stay with him forever.
He and his crew didn’t need a 911 call that night. They were already on another emergency across the highway when the helicopter went down.
“We got on scene pretty quickly, within a minute and a half to two minutes,” Vandersluis said.
What he saw next was unlike anything in his 18 years with Sacramento Fire.
“Stuff scattered on the ground that you don’t see on the ground,” he said.
Vandersluis says the crash left flight nurse Susan “Suzie” Smith thrown from the helicopter and paramedic Margaret “DeDe” Davis pinned beneath it.
“I saw her essentially pinned to the concrete and really thought that first thing I went through my mind was that she’s dead,” Vandersluis said. “And as I kind of got near her and then reached kind of down to check her pulse, she moaned.”
Vandersluis said there was chaos everywhere, with backup delayed, he made a split-second decision to call on nearby drivers for help.
“I don’t know who these people are. They are complete strangers. Gave it their all to lift that thing up. It was pretty amazing,” he said.
The teamwork between firefighters and bystanders helped free Davis, who was struggling to breathe under the weight of the wreckage.
“She was saying, she couldn’t get a breath in. That she had kind of come to that conclusion, this is where she was going to meet her demise,” Vandersluis said. “Within that brief moment, we were able to get that helicopter off of her, with her relief to be able to take a breath.”
For Vandersluis, the rescue was deeply emotional.
“I have not had this experience with a patient before. We saved her life,” he said. “And with the teamwork of my guys and all those civilians, a life was saved.”
This week, Vandersluis met Davis twice at the hospital. ABC10 captured the exclusive moment Friday afternoon as Sacramento firefighters reunited with Davis outside UC Davis Medical Center. Vandersluis said her recovery has been remarkable.
“She looked great! She is an energetic lady that loves her job and loves life and likes to help people,” he said. “She exuded that energy like she wanted to go to work tomorrow.”
Davis has since been released from the hospital and transferred to a rehabilitation facility closer to home. REACH Air Medical said pilot Chad Millward remains in the ICU in stable condition, while the company continues to honor Smith, who died in the crash.
WATCH MORE ON ABC10 | Nurse Suzie Smith dies after Sacramento medical helicopter crash on Highway 50