Positivity: Neighbor Is a Lifesaver
Kenmore girl hears distress call when pickup truck falls on man working underneath
Published on Friday, Jan 11, 2008
Big things come in small packages, Kenmore resident Rob Congrove is quick to say.
The 48-year-old crane operator was doing some routine maintenance on his metallic blue Dodge Dakota pickup Monday night when everything went black. The jack started slipping, pinning Congrove underneath.
Before the drama was over, a petite 11-year-old superhero named Schae Painter swooped in and saved his life.
”I need to do something,” said Congrove as he sat Thursday in his hospital bed at Akron General Medical Center. ”She needs recognition for what she did. In our neighborhood, that’s rare. People will sit and watch your house burn down.”
It all began Monday evening around 9, when Congrove’s wife Rebecca, 50, was doing laundry in the basement of their 13th Street Southwest home and he was tinkering with the truck outside, adding antifreeze and tightening a few bolts.
”I was just working underneath the front end of my truck,” he said. ”I had the tires off the ground and had a tight bolt on the tie rod and put my foot up on the curve for leverage to release the pressure and it pulled the jack and stand, which went sideways, and the truck came down on top of me.
”God had to be with me, because I was going to take the passenger tire off, but didn’t because it was too much bother. I got the weight of the frame, but the tire took a lot of the pressure. . . . It’s all a daze to me. Nobody was around and I was
yelling and screaming. My wife said I laid there for 20 minutes before anybody seen me.”But somebody was listening.
Up in her room, little Schae Painter, a Pfeiffer Elementary School student, was watching TV.
”I heard something three times,” said the little girl in a pink ”princess” sweatshirt on Thursday. ”He kept saying the same thing. Someone was saying, ‘Hey,’ then I told my mom it was Rob.”
It wasn’t an easy thing for Schae to hear a cry for help above the din of the constantly active neighborhood, said mom Shanan Painter. ”There’s always fights outside,” but she has learned to ignore the racket. Schae’s instincts kicked in to alert her that something bigger was amiss. Those instincts saved a man’s life.
When mom looked out, she saw a flashlight going on and off across the street, from under the truck. The families were friendly and Rob liked to give her sons, Kahlib, 14, and Jimmie, 5, old toys and model cars from time to time. It’s important for neighbors to hang tight, Schae said.
Shanan Painter told Schae to hang back while she bolted across the street. Rob, who was in and out of consciousness, told her to get Rebecca and put their barking Dobermans in the basement. Rebecca alerted authorities while Rob struggled for his next breath.
”It was a heavy load,” he said, ”I don’t think I’d like to do that again. I didn’t like all that excitement.”
He recalls being under the truck and face-to-face with a firefighter at one point.
”I pray to God that fireman knows who he is ’cause I don’t have his name to thank him,” Congrove said. ”I just remember one fireman talking to me and then I was in the emergency room. I thought the fireman was brave being down there with me. I didn’t know if the jack would come down any further.”
He spent three nights in the ICU but was moved to a private room Thursday evening. The prognosis is good. ”I’m just bruised up on the insides,” he said.
The Congroves asked Shanan and Schae Painter to visit Rob’s hospital room Thursday so they could say thanks.
”You saved my life, young lady,” he said to the girl in pink. ”Can I have a hug?
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