Fighting back like a Champion
Brother provides life-saving CPR
BY CHRIS EVANS
PRESS EDITOR
Growing up on a rural Crittenden County farm as the youngest of three brothers, Josh Champion had to be tough in order to survive.
His hardness and God's hand are the two blessings his family now points to when they talk about his remarkable recovery from a nearly fatal electrocution accident last month.
Champion, 26, had been working for Hendrix Electric for about a year and half when he was replacing power lines near Calvert City on Aug. 7. As a crewman for the electrical contracting company, Champion was aloft in a bucket truck changing out lines on a pole when he got hit with 7,200 volts.
When you consider that a household power outlet carries 120 volts, and it's enough to kill you, there's really no logical explanation as to why Champion lived.
But then again, his life and the events leading up to the accident defy logic.
Born the youngest offspring of Kenny and Pam Champion, Josh was hardened at an early age by the boyhood fights and practical jokes administered by his older brothers, Jason, now 31, and Jared, 29.
Looking back on their childhood days, the older boys are a bit ashamed by the sufferings their little brother endured.
"They would put mouse traps inside the door of their bedroom then yell for Josh to come in," said Champion's wife, the former Julie Potter. "They wanted to catch his toes in the traps."
While Jason and Jared grin at the stories from their youth and plead the Fifth when it comes to discussing the details, they do admit that Josh was tempered by his treatment and that all of it was in the name of fun.
"We did beat on him some. I guess that's why he's so tough," says his oldest brother.
Despite all of the rough and tumble stories about three young lads growing up in the Crittenden County countryside, the truth is that they are extremely close. Living on the same farm with their grandparents, the Champion boys learned about family love way back. They may have beat and banged on one another, but if an outsider threatened one, he'd better be ready to fight all three.
When Josh was severely injured on the job, it was a miracle that Jared was there to save his life.
"That was the first time we'd ever worked on the same crew together," said Jared about being on the ground and watching as his brother who was nailed by enough electricity to light a city block.
"I saw him slumped over the bucket and the wire," Jared said. "We tried to holler at him, but he didn't answer."
That's when brother and two other crewmen, Dustin Lanham of Dixon and Matt Mattingly of Marion, sprang into action.
"Dustin lowered the bucket, and I reached in and got both arms under Josh and pulled him out. We got him onto the fender of the truck then down on the ground," Jared remembers. "He wasn't breathing."
Bleeding from his eyes, ears, nose and mouth, it didn't look good for Josh and his brother knew it.
"I knew he was gone," Jared said. "We opened his mouth and poured out blood and vomit, then I ripped open his shirt and could see the burns."
Jared, who had just been re-certfied in CPR two weeks earlier, blew two quick breaths into his brother's mouth then started chest compressions. After about 100 pumps, Josh coughed and snorted, his brother said.
It had been six minutes since he was pulled out of the bucket.
For the next five minutes, Jared and another crewman kept working on Josh, pushing his chest in with CPR maneuvers.
"We did that until we didn't think we could push any more," says Jared. "Then, Josh started having convulsions. It took all four of us to hold his arms and legs."
Then, the ambulance workers arrived. By that time, Josh was breathing on his own, but barely.
When paramedics loaded his brother onto the stretcher and put him in the ambulance, Jared called his father and told him what had happened.
"I didn't think he was going to make it," Jared admits. "I told dad that it didn't look good at all."
A day that had started so innocently, was becoming a nightmare.
It was hot, about 100 degrees. The crew started work at 6:30 a.m. After a while in the heat, Josh and another crewman jumped into a pond to cool off. They broke for lunch and had just started back working on their first pole when the accident occurred at 1 p.m.
Within 45 minutes, Jared watched a PHI Air Ambulance helicopter take off from near the scene, taking his brother to Vanderbilt Hospital's Burn Center.
"If I had have known what was going to happen, I would have called in sick," Josh says now with a laugh. His jokes and smiles mean even more to a family that in the hours and days following the incident, didn't know if he would make it. And if he did, whether there would be long-term or debilitating health issues.
Josh remained in an induced coma for 24 days at Vanderbilt. While his family stayed by his side and held out hope, Josh remembers nothing of his body's battle with pneumonia and infections.
"That's what almost got me, the pneumonia," he said. "When I woke up, dad was the first person I saw. He told me that I had been in an accident. I didn't know, I thought I had been hurt in the mines where I used to work."
After a while, the memories of what happened at the top of the power pole started coming back. The scars on his chest and back will be permanent reminders. Doctors took skin from his thighs and grafted them onto the burns on his torso. While there is sure to be some scaring, Josh said doctors think his burns are healing nicely.
"God's hand was on him," says his brother who was there to administer immediate First Aid. "It wasn't me doing CPR that saved his life."
Not discounting divine intervention, the family is grateful that it was a brother there at Josh's most critical hour.
"I guess it was just meant to be that Jared was there because they'd never worked together before," said Pam Champion, their mother. "One of the guys on the crew told me that they were calling for help and Jared jumped right in and truly saved his life."
It wasn't the first time that Josh had been involved in a serious accident. In all, he's had 13 serious accidents. A few could have been fatal. Between getting his toe caught in a lawn mower at age 2, having a four-wheeler wreck, two automobile accidents, getting caught up in a hay rake and bruising his spleen on the football field, Josh has had his share of hospital stays. Once, he barely got out of a damaged vehicle before it burst into flames.
"It's to the point that when any of us get a serious phone call, we don't ask who it is, we just ask where they're taking him," quipped Jason.
While his worker's compensation insurance will pay all of the doctor bills at Vanderbilt, Josh still is amazed by the final total – $453,000, not including the ambulance, helicopter or 10 days in a rehabilitation center.
Twenty-seven days in intensive care cost Josh 30 pounds and a month of time with his young daughter, Jaylee.
Despite some troublesome and slow-healing bed sores, he is now getting around well and is chomping at the bit to get down on the family farm and back to work. It's still going to be a while before he's able to do either, but Josh can ride in a car and walk around the house without much trouble.
"They offered me an office job when I go back, but I couldn't stand working inside," he says. "I have to be outside."
For now, he will finish convalescing and reading all of the cards and letters from well-wishers. There's a stack almost a foot high on the living room coffee table.
"It's amazing how a small community cares," Josh said. "I appreciate all the thoughts, prayers and special gifts. That means a whole lot to me."
So does his family. And from now on, he'll look a bit differently at his brothers – the same ones that used to rough him up as a kid.