Drivers Stop To Lift Car Off Boy Passers-By May Have Saved Life Of 7-Year-Old Pinned Under Hood

Davin Rose will take a seat alongside his second-grade classmates when school opens at Orchard Center Elementary in 10 days.

Without the help of Wendy Kannenberg, Craig Parrish, and a handful of others, that wouldn’t have been possible. Davin was ejected from his father’s 1989 Oldsmobile on Aug. 16 and pinned under the car’s hood along Interstate 90 just east of Barker Road.

Kannenberg, a nurse, and Parrish, a Valley sales representative, led a group of nearly a dozen drivers who pushed the car off the 7-year-old and comforted the seriously injured boy and his dog, Montana, until Valley Fire paramedics arrived.

Parrish downplayed his role. He called Kannenberg the hero.

“She knew exactly what to do,” Parrish said. “She was absolutely incredible.”

Kannenberg said she was just part of a group effort.

“If there had been one less car that stopped, one less person down there …” she said by phone from her Sanpoint home before her voice trailed off.

Their actions cut the rescue time for firefighters by at least 30 minutes, said Rick Keeling, Valley Fire battalion chief who was called to the accident. The extra minutes “more than likely” saved the boy’s life, Keeling said.

“I’m thankful for everyone that stopped and helped,” Robin Rose said Thursday from the side of her son’s hospital bed. “If they hadn’t stopped, he’d be dead. They’ll never know how much I appreciate what they did.”

Davin was released from Deaconess Medical Center on Friday.

He has more than 100 stitches in his head to close a horseshoe-shaped gash, a bandage on his right arm and a walker to keep him from using the muscle he pulled in his right leg. But he’s expected to make a full recovery, his mother said.

On Thursday, Davin tossed a Nerf football around his hospital room while he watched “Hook,” a movie starring Robin Williams. Not even his mother’s teasing about the doctors shaving off half his golden brown locks of hair wiped the smile from his healing face.

“He looks incredible compared to that first day,” Robin Rose said.

The outcome could have been much different, Keeling said.

“We don’t really encourage people to do this because they could do more damage than good,” he said. “But it’s good that they got involved.”

Bystanders most often can help victims, by offering a shoulder to cry on, someone to talk to, and a warm blanket, Keeling said. He cautioned against bystanders trying to do too much.

“If they get involved past their level of training, they run the risk of becoming a patient themselves,” Keeling said.

Keeling remembered being called to a plane crash a couple of years ago and finding an extra victim.

A man trying to help the pilot was electrocuted before firefighters arrived. He didn’t notice power lines that were knocked down during the crash were draped across the plane.

Drivers who stopped last Friday found the boys’ father, Dennis, and 8-year-old sister, Elisha, frantic, but not seriously injured, outside the car. They could not find Davin.

After searching the ditch and looking inside the car, they decided the boy must be under it. Several of them heaved the car back onto its wheels and found Rose folded up, his head between his legs.

He was unconscious, bleeding badly from his head and barely breathing, Kannenberg said.

“He did not appear to be alive,” she said.

While Kannenberg lay in the weeds beside the freeway to keep Davin as still as possible until paramedics arrived, others took care of the boys’ sister, father and dog.

“It almost looked organized,” Keeling said of the scene when he pulled up. “Somebody was in charge.”

The boy was flown to Deaconess Medical Center 15 minutes later, Keeling said.

“It was just amazing to (hear about) all those people rallying together for this little man,” Robin Rose said. “You think nobody cares, but they do.”

Elisha Rose, an Orchard Center third-grader, also was taken to Deaconess with a cut on her right foot. Dennis Rose, who was arrested for vehicular assault, had facial injuries, but refused treatment.

Kannenberg showed up at Deaconess with her family a few hours later to check on the children. She brought a sympathy card for the Roses.

Inside Kannenberg’s 10-year-old daughter wrote, “I guess my mom helped save your son’s life.”

“For me to read that, that was hard,” Robin Rose said. “It makes you thankful. It’s a reality check.”

Parrish came to the hospital about midnight. The memory of a friend recently dying in his arms ate away at him. Parrish had to know if the children were OK.

“He said, ‘I held your son until the paramedics got there,”’ Robin Rose said. “We talked and I cried and he cried.”

Had the boy not been free when firefighters arrived, they would have had to secure the car before using a hydraulic jack to lift it - all of which takes time, Keeling said. Safety concerns prevent firefighters from lifting the car off by hand.

While Keeling did not encourage the action, he understood why everyone was quick to help.

“Human nature says that if you’re going to take the time to stop and see if somebody’s hurt, you’re going to try to help,” Keeling said. “It’s difficult to find fault with these people because it turned out so good.”

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