MOSCOW, Idaho — The night before Jeff Seegmiller and his family left their home for Christmas vacation, the licensed athletic trainer received a strong impression.
"I saw ourselves coming on a bad accident," he recalled. "This was a clear prompting."
Seegmiller teaches athletic training at the University of Idaho and anatomy in the Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho Medical Education Program. He is no stranger to serious injuries. A member of the Paradise Ridge Ward, Moscow Idaho Stake, Seegmiller has rendered first aid to seriously injured victims of highway accidents.
But he had never encountered anything remotely like what lay ahead.
As the family loaded their vehicle in preparation to spend Christmas vacation in Ammon, more than 570 miles away, Seegmiller felt he needed to restock his sports medicine bag with extra gauze and take a flashlight.
With six children and a dog and everything they would need on vacation, their Suburban was well-loaded, but he carefully put his medical bag where it could be easily accessed.
The trip had been uneventful. But as the family left Ammon on Dec. 28, Seegmiller was again impressed that he would need to quickly access his medical bag. Only a few miles from home north of Moscow, they came on a horrific accident in the dark.
"I saw debris all over the road," Seegmiller said. "There were two plumes of smoke and people were just getting out of a passing car. A car had slammed into a guardrail at nearly 100 miles per hour. The driver lay face down in the road. His car was torn asunder. The front seat sat atop the guardrail, the engine was down in a ravine and the highway was covered with debris. The smell of gasoline permeated the air.
Two men from another vehicle "were staring at the body and not knowing what to do," he said.
Seegmiller raced into action. He asked his son, Trevor, to retrieve his bag while he performed triage on the unconscious driver, John Cody Balka. Seegmiller's wife, Jen, dialed 911 on her cell phone.
"I noticed he (Balka) was breathing, and then I saw his legs," Seegmiller said. Both were severed just below the knee. Seegmiller grabbed tape from his bag and started to wrap Balka's legs, but quickly realized that wouldn't stanch the flow of blood.
He asked the two bystanders for their belts, which he used to put tourniquets on Balka's legs.
Next, Seegmiller bandaged Balka's head to stop the profuse bleeding. Turning the man over, Seegmiller discovered he also was bleeding from a 7- or 8-inch gash in his abdomen. It was too big for gauze pads, so he used the medical scissors from his bag to cut a square out of a bystander's fleece blanket and made a compression bandage for the gaping wound.
Seegmiller added a second tourniquet to each leg, fashioning them from nylon tie-down straps.
"The time went by kind of like it was in slow motion," Seegmiller said.
The events, however, were moving at breakneck speed. An ambulance arrived in about 15 minutes. Emergency medical technicians quickly loaded Balka and sped to Gritman Medical Center in Moscow. There he was stabilized and flown to Providence Holy Family Hospital in Spokane, Wash.
"We felt the Lord put us there at the right time," Seegmiller said.
The family was returning from Ammon a day earlier than planned and should have been well beyond the accident when it happened. But as they were leaving Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, 70 miles north of the accident scene, the Seegmillers were prompted to turn back for gas. Their "pit stop" was longer than usual.
Had they not turned back, the Seegmillers would have been far past the scene of the accident.
"I don't know why he's getting a second chance, but definitely the Lord's hand is in that," Seegmiller said.
At this writing, Balka remains hospitalized, now in satisfactory condition.
On Friday, Seegmiller was honored in ceremonies at the University of Idaho. Gov. C. L. "Butch" Otter presented a letter of commendation.
"Mr. Balka would have most certainly died from his injuries at the scene had you not chose to stop and render aid," Otter said. "You saved a life that tragic day, and on behalf of the state of Idaho and the Idaho State Police, we honor your heroic and selfless actions."
Moscow Mayor Nancy Chaney also presented Seegmiller a letter of recognition. He received congratulations from University of Idaho President Duane Nellis, who called Seegmiller's actions "a heroic act."
Seegmiller is chairman of his ward's Cub Scout Committee and has twice served as a Scoutmaster.