Family thanks rescuers

The extended family of Laurie Dearing on Monday publicly thanked the two Kalispell paramedics who helped save her life after a Dec. 14 auto accident.

Dearing, 36, and her father, Neal Miller, presented Josh Pipolo and Dan Wagner with glass mementos before members of the Kalispell City Council.

"They saved my life," Dearing said.

Her father told the council: "This is a miracle that she's standing before all of you."

About a dozen family members led a standing ovation for the two paramedics.

"It means a lot," Pipolo said.

Dearing was driving north on Montana 35 when the flatbed truck behind her lost control and rammed her vehicle, ultimately scrunching part of it under the trailer.

The Creston Fire Department was the first agency at the scene, followed by Pipolo and Wagner in a Kalispell Fire Department ambulance.

Dearing was unconscious. The paramedics quickly stabilized her and put her in the Kalispell ambulance with both working on her in back while a Creston firefighter drove.

Twice, Dearing stopped breathing. Twice, the two paramedics resuscitated her.

They took her to Kalispell Regional Medical Center, where she spent more than seven weeks. She left the hospital Sunday.

Wagner and Pipolo were grateful for the family's public recognition of them Monday. Wagner said: "Usually after we've dropped them off [at an emergency room], that's the last we see of them."