THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 3, 1995 TAG: 9511020199
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 11 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY TOM HOLDEN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
On the day before she was to begin her junior year of high school, Racheal G. Gouldthread and a friend set out for Lynnhaven Mall where they found an infant outfit that Gouldthread fancied would look great on her baby girl.
She decided to wait on the purchase, and soon enough the two First Colonial High School students were back in Gouldthread's 1982 Toyota Tercel and heading home.
In the terrible events to come, though, the 17-year-old would confront a life-altering tragedy that four years later has her working to repay a debt of gratitude to the Virginia Beach Volunteer Rescue Squad.
She has become a volunteer herself.
On that September afternoon in 1991, Gouldthread, who was six months pregnant, saw the car coming on Potters Road but it was moving so fast she had little time to react.
The driver, she would later learn, was drunk, moving at nearly twice the posted 35 mph speed limit and left of center. His car hit Gouldthread's red compact so hard that she had to be cut out of the mangled heap.
She remembers waking two weeks later in Virginia Beach General Hospital.
Her belly was flat.
She ached. Monitors beeped. Tubes snaked into her arm.
A nurse brought the stillborn baby to her. The child appeared asleep. There was a certificate of delivery and a small, white receiving blanket. ``I remember looking down and thinking, whose baby is this? Then I realized it was my baby. I just cried and cried.''
In the dreary days that followed, Gouldthread was in a fog. Her ankles were broken. One kneecap had been ripped out. Her heart was bruised. She had a concussion and several broken facial bones. Her friend, Lucy Holmes, now 19, suffered only a broken collar bone.
She named her child Cameron Shay and buried her in Princess Anne Memorial Park.
She also began years of physical therapy to learn how to walk again.
``It took about three years before I could squat,'' said Gouldthread, who at 21 now works for a tanning salon.
She also finished high school graduating on time with her First Colonial classmates in June 1993.
But throughout her recovery, Gouldthread never stopped thinking about the men and women who came to help her on Potters Road that fateful evening. She felt a growing obligation toward them - a sense of duty that took shape in a letter she wrote to Jeff Drylie, a rescue squad volunteer.
``I am very grateful to you and the many other special people who also took part in saving my life,'' Gouldthread wrote. ``Thank you is just not enough to say.
``Since my accident, my perspective on life has changed drastically. I never knew just how valuable life really is. And because of this, I have decided that I too want to become part of the Virginia Beach Rescue Squad. I want to be able to do for others the same that was done for me.''
The letter prompted the squad to arrange a meeting with Gouldthread and the people who saved her life. During the meeting, she mentioned that she wished there was something she could do to repay the debt, and a squad member suggested she join.
It was all the suggestion she needed.
She has recently become certified as an Emergency Medical Technician and her certification as an ``Attendant in Charge'' remains under way. The exams have not been easy. She failed her first test and is taking it again.
``It's really nerve-racking,'' she said. ``I get really nervous in testing situations. And they're really hard. It's not a written test. It's a practical. There are questions on minor traumas, major traumas, and three medical emergencies. You have to know what to do, take charge.''
As she trains, she rides in a Station 14 ambulance once a week, under the direct supervision of certified technicians. She volunteers in what the squad calls a ``third person'' capacity, meaning she works with more fully certified people watching over her. Her goal is to become a paramedic.
``It's hard to explain why I want to join the rescue squad,'' she said. ``Before the accident, I had said that maybe I would do that one day. I guess after it happened, there was motivation, a reality check.
``I just realized it was something I would like to do,'' she said. ``To bring life back to people. I want to give back.'' MEMO: [For a related story see page 10 of THE BEACON for this date.]
ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by DAVID B. HOLLINGSWORTH
Racheal Gouldthread rides in an ambulance once a week, under the
direct supervision of certified technicians. She wants to become a
paramedic.
by CNB