ROLLING HILLS STATES– Using an ax, firefighter Cole Gomoll cut the edge of the van’s crashed windshield. Inside the vehicle, Tiger Woods remained trapped, with his seat belt fastened and a sheet on top so as not to be harmed further by the glass debris that flew during the attempts to rescue him.
Gomoll cut a long line from one end of the windshield to the other. Then he and another Los Angeles County firefighter ripped off the glass.
They dropped the ax and took a stretcher.
Within minutes, an ambulance was speeding towards a trauma hospital, to hospitalize the famous patient.
It would be hours before the news spread around the world. But for Gomoll and the other nine members of 106 fire station in Rolling Hills Estates, California, it took just 12 minutes for the call to report that initially reported a road collision and a person trapped in a vehicle.
“He’s just another patient,” Gomoll told AP Friday, station 106.
Gomoll and the rest of the members of this station, including Battalion Chief Dean DOUTY, emphasized that anyone in a situation as complicated as Woods’s would have received the same attention.
“I didn’t know who was in the vehicle,” Captain Joe Penya said. He explained that a bailiff’s agent then issued a report.
And anyone else would have had the same privacy as well. Firefighters refused to reveal the conversation they had with the athlete or the state he was in at the scene of the accident.
“Their identity really doesn’t matter in what we do,” said Captain Jeane Barrett.
Even so, those minutes marked a milestone in Gomoll’s career. It was the first time the 23-year-old, a former member of the Marines, had used tools to remove a person trapped in a vehicle in a real accident, not in a practice.
Gomoll joined the station in August, located a mile from the crash site. He was on probation and, just three weeks ago, had practiced similar rescues with Barrett, who is his supervisor.
“We’ve trained for situations like that,” Gomoll commented.
On Thursday, Woods was transferred from Harbor-UCLA Medical Center to Cedars-Sinai, to “continue orthopedic care and recovery,” hospital executives said. On Friday night, a post on Woods’ Twitter account indicated that the golfer “underwent procedures that follow up on his injuries this morning.”
“The procedures were successful and he is now recovering in good spirits,” the message adds.
Woods was injured Tuesday when the Genesis 2021 sports van he was driving on a steep stretch of road hit a ridge in a Los Angeles coastal suburb. The vehicle invaded the opposite lanes and overturned on several occasions.
The athlete suffered multiple fractures to his right tibia and fibula. It was necessary to stabilize these lesions with a wand on the tibia.
Additional injuries to the bones of the foot and ankle required screws and nails.