Cooperative Extension Service Communications and Technology Department 3354 1000 E. University Ave. Laramie, WY 82071 (307) 766-2540 • fax (307) 766-3998 • www.uwyo.edu

 

For Immediate Release

 

Contact: Robert Waggener, Editor

Phone: (307) 766-3571

E-mail: robertw@uwyo.edu

 

Date: Aug. 17, 2006

 

UW doctoral student receives national award of valor

            A doctorate student in the University of Wyoming’s College of Agriculture has received a national award of valor from Kiwanis International for helping save a co-worker’s life following a farm accident.

            The Powell Kiwanis Club presented the award Aug. 10 to Powell resident Randy Violett.

            Violett is credited for helping save the life of Alan Gray, director of UW’s Powell Research and Extension (R&E) Center.

            Violett, a doctoral student in the Department of Plant Sciences and a full-time research associate at the Powell R&E Center, described the events at the Kiwanis meeting.

            On July 27, 2005, Violett and Gray, his major faculty adviser, were working with a flail harvester when the rotating head of the machine caught a surveyor’s pin flag used to mark plant test plots.

            The metal wire was chopped into pieces by the harvester, and a 3-inch section flung through the machine and shot through Gray’s left nostril and into his brain.

            “Alan fell down like a shot,” Violett told the Kiwanis, as quoted in a front-page article in the Powell Tribune. “Alan was lying there, gurgling and gasping for air.”

            Gray then stopped breathing.

            A former first responder and volunteer firefighter, Violett began administering CPR while fellow plant sciences doctorate student Calvin Odero, of Nairobi, Kenya, ran to call 911.

            Violett was able to get Gray breathing again before an ambulance arrived.

            Gray was stabilized at Powell Valley Healthcare and then flown to St. Vincent Healthcare in Billings, where doctors determined the wire had lodged in the back of his head.

            Violett told the Kiwanis he was simply at the right place at the right time to help.

            But Kiwanis member Ken Witzeling of Powell, who nominated Violett for the national award, said Violett earned the award of valor with his actions that day.

            "Randy just jumped right in and did what he could," Witzeling said. "Alan said Randy saved his life."

            Gray’s wife, Beth, said doctors initially informed her that her husband was brain dead, and they asked if Gray was an organ donor.

            “I thought, ‘If there is a God in heaven, how could He take the best part of Alan? How could he take Alan’s mind?” Beth said earlier this summer.

            It was nearly three months before Gray’s memory began to return, and he continues to undergo extensive rehabilitation. His recovery was chronicled earlier this summer on the Discovery Health Channel’s program “Medical Incredibles.”

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