It was about six months ago that a group of Prince George’s County, Maryland, firefighters stumbled upon an accident they weren’t expecting and will probably never see again.
Most of the time, the people they come across in the line of duty are having their worst days, and the outcome is rarely a happy one.
That’s a huge reason why Tuesday’s reunion at the Prince George’s County “Shop with a Cop” event brought first responders so many smiles. Typically it’s just police officers at this event to begin with. But firefighters Capt. Danon Ushinski and Lt. Nick Seminerio were there at the Walmart in Landover Hills, trying to stay dry, while they waited for the little girl and her mother to show up.
It had been just over six months since their paths had crossed. While language barriers kept any conversation to a minimum, there were lots of smiles and lots of waves to a 3-year-old girl who, the last time they saw her, had her arm elbow-deep inside a meat grinder, while an adult was banging on the doors of the firehouse in Langley Park.
The crews working out of the firehouse that day were already on the scene of other calls, so Seminerio, who volunteers in Hyattsville, and Ushinski, who works in Chillum, responded during the middle of the afternoon rush.
Seminerio said he remembered being “dispatched as the lowest priority welfare check in our system,” when the girl arrived on June 5.
“All we knew was that there was a female banging on the door asking for help,” Seminerio said.
What they found was a little girl with her arm stuck in a meat grinder. Rescuers tried to get it unstuck and succeeded in separating part of it.
Seminerio said much of the praise goes to Prince George’s County police Sgt. Rachael Jacob, who had arrived first and applied a tourniquet to the girl’s arm.
“I think that was a lifesaving intervention that they should be commended for as well,” Seminerio said.
While the girl sat through it all stoically — far calmer than anyone could ever imagine — responders stabilized the grinder and got the girl into an ambulance, with the grinder still attached to her arm. From there, a crew from D.C. Fire and EMS met them at Children’s National Hospital and donned surgical gowns so they could use metal saws to cut the meat grinder off the girl’s arm.
What was the reaction of the firefighters as they walked around the store with the family?
“I mean, surprise, shock,” Seminerio said. “Just on what we had, based on what we have today. It’s pretty incredible.”
“It’s amazing,” Ushinski said. “They really did a great job with her hand. I mean, she’s able to use, has function, which is good.”
The girl ended up losing some fingers in the tragedy, but that didn’t stop her from placing toys inside the cart. But the firefighters were watching her closely.
“I’ll just say this, we’re taking notes of the things that she’s looking at,” Ushinski said. “We’ll figure that out. We’ll see, we’ll see, what we can do. Someone might be working Christmas Eve.”
Is he talking about Santa Claus?
“I got a guy that kind of looks like Santa Claus,” Ushinski said. “We’ll figure that out.”
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