Woman finds her hero 24 years after accident on Nebraska road
NORTH PLATTE, Neb. – An Iowa woman who was badly injured in a car accident in Nebraska found the man who helped keep her alive 24 years ago.
Jennifer Hardie-Fehrer, now a nurse in Chariton, Iowa, has thought often about the man she could remember only as Chris, who stopped after seeing the June 4, 1992, accident on Interstate 80 near Hershey.
Hardie-Fehrer was 12 and her sister Trisha, 23, were driving from Colorado to spend time with their father in Iowa. Trisha lost control of the car as she reached for something and the car rolled, ejecting Jennifer Hardie-Fehrer into the eastbound passing lane.
Chris Scaff was an emergency medical technician and firefighter who drove a truck in his spare time to pay for additional education.
“Jen was bleeding out,” Scaff told the North Platte Telegraph. He ran out of bandages from his medical kit as he tried to stop the girl’s bleeding, so he had to use a blanket. After surgery and other treatment, she eventually went home.
It turns out she lived in Arvada, about 50 minutes from where Chris did. They visited several times but eventually lost touch. He moved to Indiana and later was badly injured in an all-terrain vehicle accident.
He now lives in Loganton, where he teaches fire and emergency medical services classes.
Hardie-Fehrer didn’t forget him. She had to find him.
“I wanted to do a better job saying, ‘Thank you,’ than I was capable of at 12,” Hardie-Fehrer said.
She and a friend put together a Facebook post May 30, asking for help in finding Chris. A newspaper reporter offered to help track him down, and did.
“I didn’t even know if she was still alive,” Scaff said.
On Saturday, the two spoke. He said he’d been thinking about her as the anniversary of her accident approached. She thanked him and called him her hero.
“We will never lose touch again, I promise,” Hardie-Fehrer said.