11/18/2009 6:15:00 AM Chino council honors family for neighborly action that saved life
Dave, Cindy and Jason Shaul of Chino Valley have earned a Notice of Commendation from Mayor Jim Bunker, on right, for helping to save the life of neighbor Tom Carver. From left, Judy and Tom Carver joined Cindy and Dave Shaul and Bunker during a ceremony Thursday at the Town Council meeting. The Shauls' son, Jason, did not attend the meeting. Special to the Review/Jerry Herrmann
Photos show the emergency medical helicopter landing and taking off from Carver's home out M.A. Perkins Trail the day a new shed he was working on fell on him on July 21, pinning him underneath. The medical crew took him to a Phoenix hospital with broken bones. He's since undergone five surgeries.
Review/Salina Sialega
Dave Shaul, a Phoenix transplant who moved to Chino Valley in summer 2002, learned the value of service to others during a lengthy career in the U.S. Army and the Army National Guard.
"That is one of the things that we were taught in the Army: to take care of others," Shaul said. "When you are out in the middle of Afghanistan, you are out there with your buddies."
Shaul, a buyer for the Town of Prescott Valley who retired from the military in August 2008 after 31 years of active and reserves duty, believes in applying the same principles at home.
"My family was always brought up love your neighbors as yourselves - the Golden Rule," he said.
Shaul thinks he, wife Cindy and son Jason were being good neighbors - not heroic - July 21 when they rescued their neighbor, Tom Carver. A freestanding shed roof measuring 36 by 16 feet collapsed on Carver while he was working on it on his Wendigo Trail property.
Carver, a three-year resident who has lived in the tri-city area since 1990, said his wife, Judy, used a truck jack so that he could breathe, adding the Shauls heard Judy scream for help.
"David and his son, Jason, scaled two fences between the properties," Carver said. "They were able to jack up the roof to pull me out. I was pinned between the rafters and the ladder."
Dave Shaul said, "The only reason we moved him out from underneath is we were not sure about the stability of the structure, and he was laying on the ladder." Meanwhile, Cindy called 911, and paramedics and police arrived shortly afterward, Carver said. He estimated he was trapped for as long as 20 minutes but did not feel any pain because he thinks the adrenaline kicked in.
"The paramedics determined that my injuries were too traumatic to treat me locally, and they called Native Air," Carver said.
A Native Air helicopter flew Carver to John C. Lincoln North Mountain Hospital in Phoenix, where doctors repaired broken bones and reset his right knee.
Altogether, Carver said he has undergone five surgeries since the accident.
"I probably won't fully recover for another year," Carver said. "I'm still hobbling around."
However, Carver, an Air Force veteran who is retired from 36 years in law enforcement, is grateful for the actions of his neighbors.
If Carver had been underneath the shed and it compressed his chest, he could have been asphyxiated - and died, said Battalion Chief Jack Miller of the Chino Valley Fire District.
"If his leg was bent, where it was stopping blood flow, then he could have lost a leg," Miller said.
Miller said the deed of the Shauls was potentially risky - and "very commendable."
Dave Shaul downplayed the perception that his family acted heroically.
"It's no different than feeding their animals if they are away," he said.
He added the rescue was "an act of Providence" because he was home that afternoon waiting for Jason to pick up his 2-year-old daughter, Maddie. Jason, a restaurant manager who lives in Surprise, generally leaves the girl with the grandparents on Fridays and takes her home on Mondays.
"I elected to take Tuesday afternoon off," Shaul said. "I never take a Tuesday afternoon off."
Shaul, 56, continued, "I did not do anything special."
Disagreeing, Carver said, "He is not just a good neighbor. He is a family man. He is a patriot. He is a good friend and he is my hero."
Carver, 65, said he called the fire district and then Chino Valley Town Hall to find out about honoring the Shaul family.
Chino Valley Mayor Jim Bunker presented the Shauls with a Notice of Commendation Thursday for "outstanding conduct by a citizen."
The presentation amounts to the first time since 1999 that a Chino Valley mayor has issued the award, Town Clerk Jami Lewis said.
"This is the first request I have ever had," she said. "Tom Carver asked if there was something he could do publicly."
Reader Comments
Posted: Thursday, November 19, 2009
Article comment by:
Native
The name of the raod is M.A. Perkins Trail, named after Marion Alexander Perkins, Pioneer Cattleman, Territorial Legislator, State Legislator. Not ma perkins road as your caption reads.
