Creston teen honored for helping at accident

On Aug. 23, 16-year-old Lucy Megerth’s ordinary day ended with an act of heroism.

That Friday night, Megerth, of Creston, was driving on Montana 35, heading home from a fishing trip in Marion, when a wreck stopped traffic near Four Seasons Nursery.

In the confusion that followed, Megerth kept her cool. She knew she could help.

She had the advantage of training as a lifeguard in the spring and was spending her first summer on the job at Woodland Water Park.

“It kind of just clicked that I had to step up and that if I was to panic it would make things difficult,” the Flathead High School junior recalled during an interview, her calm and polite disposition evident.

She saw the injured man lying on the road and immediately reached for first-aid supplies from her daypack.

“I grabbed my gloves and instantly ran to him and went through all my first-aid steps to make sure he made it,” Megerth said.

The man was in a curled-up position, Megerth said, which, in her mind, wasn’t a good sign.

By the light of vehicle headlamps she went to work.

“I first cleared his airways to make sure he was getting enough oxygen and checked his pulse,” Megerth said.

She pressed gauze on his head wounds to stop bleeding. She went through a list of questions she remembered from her lifeguard training, which help assess the extent of a person’s injuries and how to proceed with care.

“You ask them their name. If they feel pain, the last thing they ate, medications – so if he was on blood thinner that would be important to know, [and] past injuries or recent hospitalizations,” she said.

Megerth said the man appeared to be concussed.

“He knew who he was. He didn’t know he had been in an accident, though. He couldn’t open his eyes, that was the main thing,” Megerth said.

When emergency and law enforcement personnel arrived, Megerth stepped back and let them take over. She recounted the steps she took to care for the man to Flathead County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Mandi Perry.

When she got back into her vehicle to continue the drive home, she finally had a moment to absorb everything that happened.

Although Megerth maintained her composure during the incident — and her level-headedness is one reason why she is interested in trauma care — this was the first major injury to which she’s responded.

“I was OK for a minute,” Megerth said, and then questions of “what if” turned over in her mind.

“What if I hadn’t done this and things like that, and I broke down and cried,” she said. “It all just happened so fast.”

For Megerth’s efforts, Perry recommended she receive a commendation from Flathead County Sheriff’s Office. She was presented with the commendation during a ceremony Oct. 9, which was attended by her parents Mark Megerth and Maureen Hightower.

Sheriff Brian Heino said commendations are given to officers or citizens who go “above and beyond.”

“A lot of people drove by and this high schooler stopped and helped and was on the scene when officers and EMTs arrived,” Heino said.

Megerth learned about the commendation from her mother, who called her while she was at school assisting the Flathead athletic trainer as part of an internship.

“I was kind of confused at first because I didn’t think what I did was that big of a deal,” Megerth said.

In the time since the accident, Megerth said she knows the man was discharged from the hospital, but doesn’t know much beyond that.

“I would definitely love to get in contact with him,” Mergerth said. “Definitely.”

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.