Rock Hill neighbors honored for saving man’s life after lawnmower explosion

David Wayne Plunkett can’t tell you what went wrong on the afternoon of April 2. But he can tell you everything that went right.

It was about 4:30 p.m. when he decided to mow the grass at his home on Midwood Drive in Rock Hill. Five minutes later he was on the ground, covered in debris from an exploded lawn mower, his arms like two shredded pieces of paper saturated with blood.

Two neighbors he barely knew responded to the blast, applying tourniquets and keeping Plunkett from going into shock in the critical minutes before Piedmont Medical Center paramedics and firefighters from the Newport Volunteer Fire Department arrived.

The paramedics stabilized Plunkett and took him to the Rock Hill/York County Airport where he was airlifted to the Carolinas Medical Center trauma center in Charlotte for surgery.

On Thursday, Piedmont Medical Center honored neighbors Raymond Fosdick and Thomas Hardison for their quick response, giving them the “Hero Award.” It was the seventh time the hospital has recognized people for making a difference in a life-or-death situation.

It was also a chance for Plunkett, 42, to thank everyone profusely for all they did. Words, he said, didn’t come close to conveying what he was feeling.

Neighbors responded to explosion

In an effort to “go green” Plunkett had purchased a Honda lawn mower and the kit that converted it from gasoline to propane.

That afternoon he remembers starting the lawn mower and then seeing a “white-bluish light.”

The explosion threw Plunkett 15 to 18 feet into the air. He landed on his back, covered in debris from the lawn mower. No official cause for the explosion has been determined, he said.

“My arms flapped and I was angry, angry at myself,” Plunkett said. He said his arms felt like they had been hit by jackhammers. He kicked off the debris with his legs and managed to stand up.

“I looked at my left arm and it was spun around backwards, bone falling out, blood everywhere.

“I looked at my right arm and said, ‘Duck tape and cotton won’t fix this,’” he said.

Fosdick was in the basement of his house behind Plunkett’s when he heard the first of two explosions. He said the first was a tiny “tink,” which made him to go outside. The second was louder, leading him through the trees between his house and Plunkett’s.

Fosdick ran to Plunkett, telling him, “I’m your new neighbor. I’m a Texas first responder. I know what I’m doing, you won’t die today.”

Plunkett said his reaction was, “Texas? This is South Carolina.”

Fosdick, 39, software engineer, volunteer firefighter, first responder and rescue diver who moved to Rock Hill from Houston, quickly assessed the situation.

“There were a lot of different wounds. Which one was the worst? I put the tourniquet on the right arm,” Fosdick said.

Hardison, 26, a student at Covenant College near Chattanooga, Tenn., arrived next, took off his belt and used it as a tourniquet around Plunkett’s left arm.

The most important thing, Fosdick said, was to keep everyone calm, and he relied on his own life-and-death experience to help.

On Sept. 20, 2012, Fosdick was the co-pilot on a Beachcraft Baron flying over the Gulf of Mexico about 30 miles south of New Orleans. Flying at 11,000 feet the cabin suddenly filled with smoke, likely from the plane’s heater. The pilot, Theodore Wright, made a water landing and the two evacuated the plane. They spent the next three hours in the water before the U.S. Coast Guard rescued them.

The crash taught Fosdick “how to remain calm.”

Plunkett also applied what he had learned. A special effects make-up artist for horror movies, he has researched gruesome injuries. From his Internet research he, too, knew it was important to keep calm.

“He looked like one of his works,” said his wife, Chelsea, who was home at the time of the explosion. “I thought he was dead. I was shocked to see him standing on his feet, awake, alert and bleeding heavily.”

Meanwhile, Chelsea called 911 to report the explosion and 90 percent amputation of his arms. Responders were prepared for the worst. Even that wasn’t enough.

Carl Faulk, chief at the Newport Volunteer Fire Department, said it was one of worst accidents he has seen in 30 years.

“This was war-time trauma,” Fosdick said.

Paramedics Mark Rice and Becky Smith responded to the call. Rice said he was trying to visualize the injuries from the 911 call, but when he saw Plunkett he wasn’t prepared. Rice and Smith quickly assessed what Fosdick and Hardison had done, applied more tourniquets and got Plunkett into an ambulance.

Plunkett said as they were working on him his mind was like a downloading computer. “My whole life, past and future, was racing before my eyes. It was like a cascading waterfall of information,” he said.

Then Plunkett said he heard what he believes to be the voice of God, who told him to stay calm and that “there is a lot for you to look forward to.”

Prayer had been a part of the Plunkett rescue from seconds after the explosion. Plunkett started praying, and when Hardison arrived he added his prayers, too.

“God put us there with the right tools,” Hardison said.

On the way to the airport Rice inserted an intravenous line for antibiotics in Plunkett’s leg, the only place suitable. Plunkett said inserting the line was as painful as the accident.

Plunkett credits the intravenous line, the timely tourniquets and the fast trip to the airport – a little over a minute – for saving his life and his left arm.

Initially he wanted no painkillers

At the trauma center Plunkett was adamant he didn’t want pain-killing drugs, telling doctors we was allergic to most of them. They finally told him he did not have an option. He had lost 14 pints of blood and only had three remaining.

Plunkett said he heard the beeping of his heart monitor drop. He OK’d the drugs. The next thing he remembers is waking up four days later.

On Thursday, Plunkett thanked everyone who had a part in his rescue – from 911 operator Travis Rousey to the volunteers at Newport to the paramedics and his neighbors.

The thanks were, in part, due to one of Plunkett’s teenage experiences. He was at a party where a boy passed out from drinking too much and wasn’t breathing.

“I got down on my knees and beat on his chest,” Plunkett said, helping the teen to breathe. Plunkett said he even gave the boy the shirt off his back so he could go home.

The next day, Plunkett said he went to retrieve his shirt. The boy’s mother was initially angry but thanked Plunkett for his actions. The boy, Plunkett said, never said anything to him.

“I told myself if I ever get to that point in my life, you can’t say thank you enough,” Plunkett said.

As for the accident, Plunkett is forever the optimist.

“All I did was lose an arm. I almost lost my life,” he said.

His sense of humor had his saviors laughing. When Fosdick invited the Plunketts over for a cookout, Plukett asked what the fuel for the barbeque would be. “If it’s gas I’ll pass,” he said.

Plunkett remains focused. His hope is to get a prosthetic arm so he can return to work. But first he wants his left arm to heal so he can do what’s most important – hold his 18-month-old daughter, Catherine.

This story was originally published July 30, 2015 at 9:08 PM with the headline "Rock Hill neighbors honored for saving man’s life after lawnmower explosion."