September 3, 2004

Tale of woe leads to neighborly Good Samaritan

By Carol Rosen
Editor

It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon when the four members of the Edwards family decided to take a bike ride. The youngest rider, fourth-grader Jeremy, pulled up near Willow Glen Elementary on Minnesota to wait for his brother (eighth grader) Greg, who was across the street. But father Andrew wasn’t looking at Jeremy and rode straight into the back wheel of the youngster’s bicycle, causing a freak accident.

Doug Artman stands by the red truck that saved Catherine, Greg and Jeremy a scary ride home after their father was injured.

Within seconds, Andrew had flipped over his handlebars and landed on his back with the full weight of his bicycle on top of him, breaking three ribs and puncturing a lung. Andrew’s feet were in toe clips that didn’t release. As Catherine Edwards ran to a nearby house to call 9-11, the boys watched their father who was in obvious pain, said Doug Artman, who lives on Iris Court and was returning home. “Ironically after just buying my daughter a new bike I saw the man laying in the road and the two young boys.”

Artman sent his kids walking a half block to his home, and went about finding a way to help. Once the ambulance came, he loaded up the four bikes and took them home so that Catherine, Greg and Jeremy could follow their father to Valley Medical Center. “I felt really bad for the kids. They were distraught, seeing their father in pain and driven off in an ambulance.”

Artman doesn’t see that he did anything extraordinary. “Anybody would have done it. It doesn’t really stick out to me. It’s just what good neighbors do. It’s part of living in Willow Glen, it’s a big reason why we moved here in the first place,” he said.

Meanwhile, Andrew is recovering well, but he’s still in some pain. “Don’t ever break your ribs,” he says. “Or at least don’t break three at once, it’s pretty painful.” He is taking about a month off of work and will likely return to his job at Maxtor around Sept. 13. He was not allowed to drive for two weeks following the accident.

Catherine is just happy that everything turned out all right. Until she sent a message out on Willow Glen’s e-list thanking those who had helped, she didn’t know Doug’s last name. She feels he deserves a special thank you, as does Rebecca Morgan who lent Catherine her phone to call 9-11. “Andrew was wearing his cell phone and it was totally smashed in the accident. He had a huge bruise on his hip and thigh where the cell phone was” Catherine said.

In addition, the Edwards family would like to thank Pastor Art Mills from Stone Church who met and waited with them at the hospital and friends Leslie and Rick Cromwell who brought dinner when Andrew returned home from the hospital.

Oh, by the way, the accident hasn’t deterred the family from weekly outings. While they’re taking a short break until Andrew heals, they will return to weekly family hikes and outings once the ribs are knitted back together.

On Aug. 28, Andrew and Catherine donated their bikes to Goodwill. “Too many bad memories,” said Catherine. But for their 14th wedding anniversary in September, they bought new bicycles for each other. “We look forward to being able to ride as a family again in a couple of months, once Andrew heals,” Catherine said.