By Omie Drawhorn
Sarah Parvin keeps a photo on her cell phone of her son and the man who saved his life, to remind her that there are living angels that walk around every day.
She will forever remember the events of Aug. 22, and what started out as an “ordinary day.”
Kaden Parvin, 7, was enjoying the warm summer night, riding his bike down a steep hill on Charles Avenue in Silverton with his friend Hunter Young, 9.
Unexpectedly, his tire hit an obstacle and he lost control.
He hit his front brake handle instead of his back, and he somersaulted twice over his bike and as he rolled the bike’s metal brake handle punctured his upper left thigh, leaving a gash six inches deep.
It cut Kaden’s femoral artery twice, and he started bleeding uncontrollably.
In shock, he stumbled down the hill, and Young ran for help.
That’s when Adam Stutzman, who lives at the bottom of the hill, spotted him and rushed to his aid.
Stutzman was honored by the Silverton Fire Department and the Silverton Police Department with life saving awards at the Sept. 12 Silverton City Council meeting.
The Silverton reserve police officer was working in his yard and around the house after work, when he saw Kaden and Young playing on the hill.
He didn’t think much of it until his son Zachary ran into the house and told him that Kaden had crashed and was bleeding.
“I was thinking scraped knee or elbow,” Stutzman said.
When he opened the front door to run up to assist Kaden, he saw just how serious it was. Kaden had already walked down the hill and met Stutzman at the bottom of his porch.
“At first I thought he was wearing red shorts,” Stutzman said.
He later found out the shorts were grey with blue stripes, and the red was from blood that had soaked through.
When he discovered the blood was coming from Kaden’s femoral artery, Stutzman used his CPR training to put pressure on the wound, and elevate Kaden’s head and leg. Stutzman said it was fortunate that he had his phone with him, because he normally doesn’t carry his cell with after work.
“I had one hand on his leg, the other hand holding his head up, and a cell phone tucked under my chin while I called 9-1-1,” he said.
The closest ambulance was coming from Woodburn, and Stutzman and Sarah, after she arrived, helped Kaden stay alert until the ambulance arrived.
“By the time the ambulance got there, the color was starting to come back in his face,” she said.
Although he was in shock, Kaden said he “remembers everything.”
“Without (Stutzman) the outcome would have been a lot different,” Kaden’s father, Ron Parvin said.
The ambulance brought Kaden to Silverton Hospital. When doctors discovered there was no pulse in his leg, he was taken by Life Flight to Oregon Health & Sciences University, where he underwent a four-hour surgery to repair his artery, and received a blood transfusion.
“When I asked in the operating room how he was doing, the doctor said he didn’t know how he survived,” Sarah said. “I just kept thinking ‘That’s my baby!’ It’s something you hear about or read about but it doesn’t happen to you.”
After five days in the hospital, and a few weeks of recovery, Kaden said he feels “100 percent better.”
Stutzman said he feels fortunate that he just happened to be at the right place at the right time.
“When I look at the whole thing, I see how God had us there in a particular spot; I’m glad I was the one who could help, I think anyone else would have done the same if they could,” he said.
Stutzman said he was impressed with Kaden’s ability to walk down the hill with such a serious injury.
“He was pretty amazing,” he said.
“It was a combination of everything,” Sarah said. “The community all pulled together.”
Stutzman, who works for the Oregon Department of Transportation, had been planning to eventually go through training to become an EMT, This experience has fueled his desire.
Parvin calls Stutzman a “mortal angel.”
“We walk with angels every day, and because of that angel, my angel is alive,” she said.
Despite the traumatic experience, Kaden isn’t worried about getting back on his bike, which is currently propped up against the porch of his Porter Street house. Sarah pointed to the brake handle that had done the damage.
“It was just a freak accident,” she said.
