A quick-thinking 13-year-old who helped save his grandfather after an all-terrain vehicle accident was presented with a Good Samaritan Award by B.C. Emergency Health Services in Victoria on Thursday.
Carter Burkard, and his grandfather, John Burkard, 68, were hunting at Lake Cowichan on Nov. 3 last year when the grandfather, travelling along an old logging road, attempted to turn around.
“I put the quad in reverse and the quad throttle stuck in reverse at high speed and it just pushed us over the hill,” said Burkard, who lives in West Saanich.
“I tried to apply the brakes to stop it but it was too little too late. It was one of those things,” he said. “I’ve had the quad since 2006 and it’s never done it before and it was a bad place for it to happen the first time.”
Carter, who lives in Highlands, was thrown clear but his grandfather was pinned under the four-wheel all-terrain vehicle and seriously injured.
He was semi-conscious and bleeding profusely, with a broken jaw and back and punctured eye.
“I was in pretty bad shape — I was bleeding quite heavily. My face was pretty much smashed and my throat was constricting,” said Burkard.
The teenager activated the pair’s Garmin inReach GPS device, which pinged the company’s headquarters in Texas.
“When you use a Garmin and hit the SOS, the signal goes to the satellite and the satellite receives it and sends it to the call centre in Texas and it shows our location, the co-ordinates of longitude and latitude for connection, and exactly where the person holding the Garmin is actually physically standing,” Burkard said.
They, in turn, forward it to the closest call centre to the SOS sender, which was at that time Kamloops, he said. “Kamloops was available and they contacted the first responders in our location.”
The pair’s co-ordinates were sent to B.C. Emergency Health Services call centre in Kamloops, where emergency medical call-taker and dispatcher Vanessa Baker was able to link to the GPS device so she could text Carter directly while he waited for first responders to arrive.
Carter and his grandfather had regularly used the device for finding their own location and the location of fellow hunters and to text each other.
While help was on the way, Carter was able to get his grandfather out from under the quad and help him up the embankment to a forest service road to wait for paramedics.
“I’m amazed he was able to do that,” said Burkard, who has little memory of the accident. “I’m not sure, to be honest, if I was able to assist him with that. I’m sure I was to some extent, but I honestly don’t recall.”
The injured pair were located on the forest service road and given initial treatment — a breathing tube was inserted for Burkard — before the grandfather was transported to a location where an air ambulance could take him to Victoria General Hospital.
B.C. Emergency Health Services said that throughout the rescue, Carter showed “incredible bravery and resilience,” and was able to provide clear information on the condition of his grandfather and details of their location to responders so they could be found quickly.
The Good Samaritan Award is presented to individuals who have provided unselfish and humanitarian assistance during a medical emergency, according to the ambulance service.
The Burkard rescue is an example of the importance of having GPS or satellite-based communication devices in emergency situations, said the service, which advises people heading out to the back country and out of cell range to bring a GPS device that they know how to use.
Several Burkard family members and friends and first responders gathered for the presentation of the award Thursday.
Burkard is still recovering. He lost his eye, has plates in his back and wears braces on his teeth to keep his jaw in the right position. But, as he said, because of his grandson, “I’m alive.”
“If Carter had not been there, I would not be here today,” he said. “We’ve always been pretty close but it kind of cements that bond.
“I’m extremely proud of him and there’s not many people who at the age of 13 could have done something like that.”
