YUBA COUNTY, Calif. — A teenager is in the hospital after a freak accident on the way to school left her with a broken neck and back.
She’s now recovering thanks to one of the paramedics who was first on scene — her father.
Her father, Tim Johnson, is a firefighter and paramedic with the Peninsula Fire District, a small fire department in Plumas County.
“We respond to emergency calls, fire calls, EMS calls, on a daily basis. Just there to assist the public and help out,” said Johnson. “Up in our small community we don’t have very many paramedics. I am actually one of the only ones in our community that is an actual paramedic.”
He’s also a volunteer firefighter in his hometown of Dobbins in Yuba County, which is what he was doing Nov. 2.
“I heard my pager go off for a call for the volunteer fire department in our town and I got up and was getting dressed and my wife called… my wife had pulled up on the accident because she had left a few minutes after Emma and she called me and told me that it was Emma, it was her truck,” said Johnson.
Emma, his only daughter, was heading to school at Nevada Union High School where she’s a junior.
Johnson says another driver hit a deer on Marysville Road and threw the animal with such force it crashed through the 16-year-old’s front windshield, breaking her neck and her back before it flew out of the back window of her truck.
When he arrived on the scene, firefighters had already pulled his daughter from the driver’s seat.
“I just made sure she knew I was there and then just went to work doing what I know to do. It always goes through your mind that it’s possible, but I never thought I would have to work on one of my own family members,” said Johnson.
Emma was airlifted to Enloe Medical in Chico, then again to UC Davis Hospital where she is now.
Emma made it through 12 hours of surgery focusing on the fractures in her face Tuesday. Doctors are hopeful the fracture in her neck may heal itself.
“If there is a silver lining, I guess, I was there. I was off work and home and could provide care for her,” said Johnson.
Now, as Emma focuses on her healing, their community is focused on taking care of the Johnson family.
They’ve already seen an outpouring of support from the fire departments, Emma’s high school, her softball team and her FFA family where Emma shows cattle and rides horses.
“She is always there for everyone else and the community has really stepped up and been there for her”
Emma has at least one more surgery ahead of her. The community has come together and started a GoFundMe to help with some financial costs of the accident.