LANDOVER HILLS, Md. — Some wrong turns take you in the correct direction, if you ask the off-duty first responder whose chance presence in an area roadway last month helped him save a woman’s life.
Prince George’s County firefighter William Gressen discovered Brianna Morrissette, 22, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, on Crain Highway in a wrecked car nearly choked to death by the seat belt wrapped around her neck.
“The only words I can find to say are ‘thank you,’ I’m eternally grateful,” Morrissette said at a reunion with Gressen Tuesday. “It was very heroic of you.”
While driving on Crain Highway in the early morning hours of Sunday, July 9, Gressen saw a light in the woods, turned his vehicle around to investigate, pulled over and then climbed about 125 feet down an embankment past trees and through heavy brush to find and free Morrissette.
Her vehicle was on its side; one headlight was buried in the mud. Gressen had to climb onto the vehicle to reach through broken glass to help her. Describing what happened, he recalls finding her neither breathing nor moving, lying with her feet on the dash and her head wedged between the headrest and car door, her neck hyperextended by the taut seat belt.
“Once I released the pressure, you were small enough that you slipped right through the seat belt; and when you hit the ground on the other side, you started breathing again,” Gressen said.
“There was a guardian angel,” Brianna’s mom, Aundrea Wheeler Morrissette said, while noting a coincidence: “They share the same birthday, and I know that God was in the midst of all this.”
Gressen and Morrisette share more than just a birthday, they are both in professions that help people. Morrissette is a domestic violence coordinator in Charles County.
Wheeler Morrissette said Brianna’s rescue makes it feel as if her daughter now has two birthdays.
Taking in the gratitude and happy tears, Gressen said that he doesn’t know why he turned onto Crain Highway that night versus Branch Avenue. “I just happened to make a wrong turn.”
Gressen modestly said a team effort was responsible for the happy ending. Company 40 retrieved Morrissette from the deep ravine and Maryland State Police flew her to a hospital.
Morrissette suffered a scratch on her leg and a broken clavicle.
“I was really grateful for that, as well. I didn’t have any major injuries, no brain trauma, no anything,” Morrissette said.
Responding to Morrissette with a simple “you’re welcome,” Gressen said during the reunion, “I’m glad everything went OK.”
“Anytime we can recognize our employees for a job well done, I definitely enjoy that,” Prince George’s County Fire and EMS Chief Benjamin M. Barksdale said.
