At approximately 11:50 a.m. yesterday, a male student was seriously injured after falling from a sky bridge connecting the University Services Building and the School of Business Administration onto the street below.
Three bystanders, each of whom had medical training, administered first aid and rescue breathing on the injured man until paramedics arrived.
Andrew Roberts, after seeing a motion in his peripheral vision, immediately helped in the effort to treat the man.
Roberts, a former emergency medical technician, stayed with the patient until the first response vehicle, an ambulance, arrived on the scene.
Pete, a PSU senior, heard the man fall.
“I heard the sound,” he said, “I thought it was a car accident.”
“By the time I turned around the nurse was already wearing rubber gloves,” he continued.
“I knew I couldn’t do much for him, so I just wanted to do what I could.”
Pete began directing traffic on Broadway away from Montgomery Street, where the volunteer emergency team was treating the injured student.
Soon Pete was joined by Victoria, a sophomore who did not see the man fall, but felt the need to aid in any way she could.
“I’m just helping out – he’s a classmate,” she said.
“I saw his body as he was going over,” said Joshua Klien, a junior, “I just basically started praying and grabbed my cell phone.”
He was not alone; a flood of bystanders began dialing 9-1-1 for emergency assistance.
“People were really responsive,” said Vanguard advertising adviser Ann Roman, who was walking down Montgomery Street when the man fell.
“People just came out of nowhere,” she said.
A large crowd gathered as Campus Public Safety officers cordoned off Montgomery Street and emergency workers prepared the injured student for transport to Legacy Emmanuel Hospital.
Some students openly wept as they watched the ambulance drive away.
The condition of the student was not made publicly available at press time.
PSU Counseling and Psychological Services will be working off hours today to make themselves available to those students who witnessed the event, or knew the student, and will be making efforts to target their counseling toward those who need it most.
Counseling and Psychological Services is located in Smith Memorial Student Union, Room M343 (3rd floor Mezzanine) and can be reached at 503-725-4423.