Lucky to be alive

Joe Kohn visits with EMS workers who help save his life after an explosion

“I’m surprised I am alive.” On November 2, Joe Kohn was making a service call on the refrigeration system at a convenience store in downtown Merrill.

It was a routine service stop Joe, a technician with Benedict Sales & Service, explained. Something he had done countless times before.

He was working on equipment on the roof of the building and because it had been a little icy that day set the extension ladder to be higher than normal.

This is just one of the things that likely saved Joe’s life that day.

As Joe finished up the work he was doing on the equipment, the compressed gas canister he was working with exploded.

According to Jeremy Dickinson Service Director with Benedict Sales and Service, the cause of the explosion is still under investigation by safety inspectors.

The force of the explosion hit Joe full in his face and right arm. It tore through his bicep muscle ripping it and causing significant bleeding. The bones See JOE KOHN on page 16 in his jaw and face were broken and he could not see from one eye.

Joe was lucky. Had the explosion hit his temple or other part of his head, he could have been killed instantly or knocked out and would have bled out on the roof before anyone knew to look for him.

Joe knew he had to get help and that the only way he was going to do that would be by helping himself.

Joe’s glasses had been blown from his face in the blast. He made his way by feel to the edge of the roof and located where he had set the ladder and climbed down. Rescue personnel recounted that smears of his blood on the side of the building showed how he felt along the wall to find the entrance and go inside and ask for help.

The workers at the store, who knew Joe from his stops for service calls, helped as best they could calling for emergency services and using towels to put pressure on his arm to stop the blood flow.

The next bit of luck that helped keep Joe alive was that the station for the Merrill Fire and EMS Service was just a few blocks away where paramedics were onsite and ready to respond. Responders noted that the call came in as someone falling off the roof. It turned out to be something far different.

Responding that day were paramedics Paul Peterson and Kyle Banaszak along with their driver EMT Richard Sparks.

Once on the scene, the EMS staff quickly got to work to attempt to stabilize Joe. A tourniquet was put on his arm to try to stop the bleeding and they got him in an ambulance and on his way to Aspirus Wausau Hospital.

Banaszak recalls Joe being concerned on the ambulance trip about the tourniquet and with potentially losing his arm.

Joe, along with his wife, Kristie and two of their four children, 10-year old twins Palmer and Lily, made the trip back to Merrill on February 2 to visit with the ambulance personnel, police officers and others who helped save his life that day.

From Merrill, Joe was brought to Wausau where they worked to further stop the bleeding in his arm, focusing on that as the most critical life threatening work. Joe said they had to cauterize some of the veins. The decision was quickly made that the severity of Joe’s injuries required more than what Wausau could offer and he was airlifted to Madison.

By this point Kristie had been notified and was frantically on her way to Wausau only to find out he was already on his way to Madison.

In Madison, Kohn underwent a series of surgeries in his arm and then lengthy surgeries with the plastic surgeons to rebuild his face. He spent weeks in the hospital before being transferred to a rehab facility and finally being able to come home on November 28.

Even then, he was not done with surgeries or doctors. In December, a section of his skull was cut out to provide a bone graft to help rebuild his cheek bones. His broken jaw had been wired shut and a tracheotomy tube was placed to ensure he continued to be able to breath while in the hospital in Madison. Just before Christmas, he was able to have the tracheotomy tube removed and then the wires holding his jaw in place also removed.

He is undergoing therapy to be able to use his jaw again and help with speaking and eating.

He is far from done with his ordeal. Additional surgeries will be needed and once he is able to get his mouth opened enough he will need dental work to address the teeth that were lost and broken as a result of the explosion.

But for now, Joe is happy to be alive and happy to be able to thank those who helped save his life.

Throughout his ordeal Joe has been updating family and friends about his progress through social media.

“Don’t take things for granted. You don’t realize how good your life is. Walking. Seeing. Eating. Showering. Getting dressed. Driving. Using the bathroom. You don’t realize how good you have it. I know things will get better. I will get back to myself, or as close as I can. I feel, and I’m hoping, I will be more thankful, more patient, not as quick to anger. This has all been humbling,” Joe wrote in a post a few weeks after the explosion.

Joe Kohn is lucky to be alive. And he is the first person who will tell you that he is lucky for all the people who have helped get him to this point, especially his family who have been there to help him along the way and his wife, Kristie, who has had to put her life on hold to be his primary caregiver at home as he continues the slow process of healing.

“I am very thankful,” Joe said.

Joe Kohn (left) along with his wife Kristie and two of his children were in Merrill on Feb. 2 to visit with and thank the emergency responders who helped save his life following a Nov. 2 explosion that occurred while he was servicing a compressor on the roof of a convenience store.Brian Wilson/The Star News