Their Heroic Easter Fairchild Pair Honored For Action At Accident Scene
They agreed not to swear because it was Easter Sunday, until Staff Sgt. Derek Brown glanced in his rearview mirror.
Two cars behind them crunched into each other on Sunset Hill. One spun a U-turn and bounced to a stop in a spray of glass and steam. The other, a larger car, skidded sideways.
“I saw the two cars collide head-on,” said Brown, 29. “Our deal was shot then.”
Brown and Staff Sgt. James Eastman, both security officers at Fairchild Air Force Base, pulled off the road. They sprinted back down Sunset Hill, about 300 to 400 yards, to the two cars. They helped care for a teenage girl who wasn’t breathing and her younger brother for the long minutes until paramedics arrived.
Now, they’re being honored for their heroics of April 7, 1996. The American Red Cross will give Eastman and Brown lifesaver awards today during the third annual Lifesaver Awards luncheon.
Six other people also will receive lifesaver awards from the Red Cross.
Neither Cheryl Moland, now 19, nor her brother, Andrew Burleigh, now 7, remember meeting Eastman and Brown on that stretch of highway. They don’t remember much from that Sunday afternoon, or from weeks before or weeks after.
The family had gathered at a friend’s house after church. Moland left with her brother to take him home.
Their mother, Diana Burleigh, handed Andrew a hotdog to eat on the ride home. She left 15 minutes after her children did, slowing as she passed the accident, unaware her children were involved.
No one’s sure what happened. Moland thinks she might have reached over to help her brother with his hotdog and drifted over the center line into the path of a larger car.
After the crash, Eastman sprinted for the smaller car, crumpled and smoking. Brown checked with the elderly couple in the larger car. The man and woman were bruised and shaken, but conscious.
Moland and Andrew weren’t so lucky. Moland’s eyes were open, her head and upper body forced out of the bent driver’s jagged side window. She wasn’t breathing.
“I’d have bet a paycheck she was gone,” said Eastman, 33.
Andrew was still in his lap belt, but his shoulder strap wasn’t on. He was lying on his side with his head on his sister’s thigh. He looked like he was taking a nap. A hotdog was lying on the floor.
Eastman, a former volunteer firefighter with emergency training, checked Moland’s pulse and found it beating strong. He put his thumbs under her chin, and straightened her upper body into the car. He held her neck tightly, holding her head up. Less than 30 seconds later, she started breathing. After two minutes, she started talking.
“She wanted to go home,” Eastman said. “She wanted to lay down. She wanted her mom. Finally she told me her name.”
At first, Andrew wasn’t breathing either. His right eye was closed. His left was seriously damaged. Andrew took a short gargle of a breath. That was it, for a while. A nurse driving by stopped and helped watch him.
When paramedics arrived, Brown helped carry Andrew to the ambulance. Moland had to be cut out of the car.
Brown and Eastman helped at the scene for about three hours.
“I totally think they’re God-sent, I swear to God,” Moland said last week. “Just to have two people who would stop and help you, that’s incredible.”
Eastman and Brown checked in with Deaconess Medical Center and found out the family’s last name. They sent a teddy bear and a doll. They checked in daily on the brother and sister through a friend who works at the hospital.
Four months after the accident, Moland called Eastman to thank him and Brown. She had found a get-well card hooked on a doll with curly blond hair.
Moland is still recovering from a broken right collarbone, a broken left elbow, a ruptured spleen, a fractured pelvis and a broken left femur. She got married last summer and moved to Seattle.
Andrew lost his left eye and suffered head injuries. He’s got problems paying attention. He’s a jumping bean in overalls, hopping from couch to floor to the phone to a bug crawling on the floor. He is in the first grade at Ponderosa Elementary School. He likes recess and especially the game “Duck, Duck, Goose.”
“They weren’t sure he was going to make it,” Diana Burleigh said. “Oh boy, what a nightmare. I’m very thankful to those two guys. Most of all, I guess it’s a miracle.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo
MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: The honorees The American Red Cross will honor eight people and an organization today for trying to save lives. Besides Brown and Eastman, two Spokane police officers and a Ritzville police officer will receive awards for helping in the line of duty. A ski patrol member and a 15-year-old Medical Lake girl will also be honored. SpokAnimal CARE and its executive director will receive an award for saving the lives of animals. Vernon Baker, recently awarded the nation’s highest military award for his heroics during World War II, will speak at the 11:30 a.m. luncheon at Cavanaugh’s Inn at the Park. Tickets are $20. For information, call 326-3330.