by Teresa Eubanks, CLJNews.com
CALHOUN COUNTY, FL – Repairs to the Scotts Ferry Bridge came to a halt shortly after 8 a.m. Tuesday morning when a Blountstown man supervising the work fell 30 feet from the damaged structure, hitting a lift platform on his way down.
Shane Maneth, 43, was on the bridge with a crew from Webber Infrastructure replacing a section of the bridge that was knocked out May 4 when a Jackson County woman drove through the railing and went off the bridge before landing upside down on the banks of the Chipola River.
What followed Tuesday was a series of challenges and quick decisions for the Calhoun County Ambulance crew, air medics, Shane’s co-workers and local first responders as well as the staff at Calhoun Liberty Hospital. Two different times, Shane would have been declared dead had he not had crews working over him and continuing CPR efforts for more than 30 minutes.
One emergency worker said Shane’s survival “was nothing short of a miracle.”
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When the Calhoun County ambulance arrived, the crew realized that before they could help the injured man, they had to get him up the steep, muddy hill, but first, “We had to grab a chain and repel down to him,” a first responder said.
The crew scrambled down the riverbank, where they found Shane’s co-workers had already begun first aid efforts. The Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office sent a boat to the scene in case he would have to be evacuated from the water.
After being placed on a backboard, Shane was carried up the hill by several men. At times, they were slogging through mud that was up to their knees.
Traffic on SR 20 was being rerouted as the Survival Flight 21 emergency helicopter arrived. The ambulance crew was in the process of preparing Shane to be transferred to the emergency helicopter for the trip to a Bay County hospital when he suddenly went into cardiac arrest. His condition was “incredibly unstable,” according to one witness.
Now unable to fly, he would have to go by ambulance to Calhoun Liberty Hospital. The pilot headed out to the hospital while the rest of the helicopter crew jumped in the ambulance to continue working on the patient as they sped to Blountstown. His wife, Garrett, had been told they would take Shane to Panama City. She was 10 minutes from the hospital there when she learned they had to rush him to Calhoun Liberty Hospital for immediate care.
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Shane’s niece, Whitney Edwards – who has worked as a nurse for 12 years – is helping family and friends understand her uncle’s many injuries and issues following his near-fatal fall.
After learning his situation had worsened on Tuesday, she rushed to Calhoun Liberty Hospital, where she was told he was Code 4 and CPR was still in progress. Although things didn’t look good for Shane, Dr. William Rankin – who joined the staff at Calhoun Liberty Hospital about a month and a half ago – continued CPR for more than 30 minutes.
Standing outside the ER entrance, “I stopped everything and joined hands with several people here,” Whitney said. “Within three minutes the nurse came out to say we’ve got a pulse and blood pressure.”
She told her Facebook followers, “I don’t want it to go unnoticed that he was dead, we prayed, and God heard and he regained a pulse.”
It’s unlikely anyone in the ER that day will forget the experience. “You could feel an electric pulse in the air…we were all working seamlessly,” a nurse later told Whitney.
Whitney said it’s been her experience that doctors rarely continue life-saving measures after 15 minutes of unsuccessful CPR. “We are so thankful Dr. Rankin continued it as long as he did,” she said.
With the cascade of medical issues that were happening to her uncle Tuesday, it’s unlikely he could have survived the trip to a larger facility. “We are extremely grateful for our small hospital,” Whitney said. “They didn’t quit.”
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Shane is now at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, where his many medical issues are being addressed.
“He was hit twice when he fell,” Whitney said, explaining that he slammed into the lift platform before falling to the ground.
First, the good news: “There was no liver or spleen damage, no blood on he brain, no blood in the abdominal cavity.”
But his body has a lot of healing to do. “He sustained lots of broken ribs that punctured BOTH lungs, a shattered pelvis, and a fractured spine – all of which will require surgery,” she wrote on her Facebook page Tuesday evening. “His body is undergoing tremors due to severe pain.” Later that night, he began having seizures which continued this morning.
“He is facing at least a month in the hospital and at least three surgeries,” she said. There are many more tests and exams in his future, but for now they have the best news of all: “He is stable and holding his own right now,” Whitney said.
“To hear those words ‘brain damage or brain dead’ are so scary and so many thoughts begin to creep in as to what that means for the future. We are hopeful and still believing that he will be completely restored,” she said.
May 23, 2024 UPDATE from Whitney Edwards:
EDITOR’S NOTE: Originally from Liberty County, Shane and his wife, Garrett, live in Blountstown. They are the parents of three children: 16-year-old Madix, 18-year-old Noah, and daughter, Kayla Hostetter, 23, and son-in-law Dustin. Many know Garrett for her work with the Earthen Vessels Women’s Recovery program in Bristol.
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