Weaverville – Nearly three years after what could have been a life-ending accident, Dwight Chandler, 90, is still doing what he loves, although maybe a bit slower, on his small farm on Eller Cove Road in Weaverville.
It was an April day when the mishap occurred; Chandler’s daughter, Terie Brank, recounts that her dad planned to give a steel work table to Brank’s son, Chandler’s grandson. Chandler managed to load the table by himself. He tried to take off a vice when “…it turned over, knocking him off the back, but as he was going off the tailgate [the table] caught his leg [pinning him].” Brank goes on to say, “So, he’s hanging, not touching the ground, from the tailgate.”
Chandler, 87 at the time, was nearly upside down hanging by his pinned leg when he started yelling for help. Terie, who lives next door, was in her house recovering from surgery but couldn’t hear him yelling.
Chandler’s golf cart, which he uses to get around his home, was near enough that he could use it to take some pressure off his leg, but not close enough to extricate himself from the situation. No doubt, he was in a dire predicament.
Sounds like a miracle?
While Brank could not hear her dad next door yelling for help, someone else did. Josh Davis, an employee of PlumbSmart at the time, was on Penley Park Road, working on a home with a co-worker.
“I thought it was a billy goat,” Davis told the Tribune, “I said, ‘what’s that noise?’” Davis said that his co-worker asked, “Is that someone saying help?” The two listened for a minute before Davis’ co-worker said he would take the truck down the hill and see if he could find the source of the noise, while Davis decided to start walking and try to follow the voice. About 15 minutes later, Davis found Chandler.
“This is where we know, without a doubt, God carried his voice. I mean, this is over a mile away,” said Brank. According to a map, the distance between the Chandler’s home and where Davis was working is just over half a mile. By the time Josh got there, Brank said her dad’s voice was almost gone. Davis agrees with Branks’ assessment of divine intervention. When asked what he would credit being able to hear Chandler’s voice that far away, he said, “I don’t know. Good Lord, I guess. It wasn’t [Chandler’s] time.”
Davis said Chandler was “dangling off the back of his truck” in between the truck and golf cart. Davis said he picked up the bench, “which was stupid heavy,” but he said, “that was all I could do. I told him he’s got to move.” Chandler moved his leg out of the way until Davis was able to drop the bench.
After Chandler had a few minutes to recover from his ordeal, he gave Davis a ride part of the way back to his work site. When Brank discovered what happened, she took her dad to urgent care. Chandler developed a blood clot and had a bad cut on his shin due to the mishap. Chandler told the Tribune, “If anybody doesn’t believe in miracles, they would if what happened to him, happened to them. They would believe!”
Search to thank good samaritan
Brank wanted to thank the good samaritan that took time out of his workday to go find that still small voice crying for help. So, she sent a message to Don Hilderbrand, owner of PlumbSmart, in an effort to get into touch with Davis.
“I was hoping I could get in touch with you first thing… This is a very urgent matter. I just want to commend you for the heroic action of one of your employees. I do not know his name…My 87-year-old father found himself in a life-threatening situation. Your plumber heard his cry for help all the way on Eller Cove Rd and walked quite a ways to help…Your plumber took the time to find out where the cry for help was coming from and literally SAVED HIS LIFE! Not everyone would have responded, but he did. I would love to meet him. Actually, our whole family would. I know you can’t put a price on a life, but I would like to give him a little something to show my gratitude for giving my Daddy more time here on this earth with us. We all believe God had a hand in his voice being heard so far away. I would greatly appreciate it if you would kindly call me as soon as you can.”
After getting in contact with Davis, Brank gave him a card with a small token of her appreciation, thanking Davis for allowing her more time with her dad.
Chandler thought he was going to die
Chandler is the caregiver for his wife and has dementia. He still likes to piddle around his house and ride his tractor. When asked what he was thinking when he was pinned upside down, He told the Tribune, “I was going to die. I didn’t think there was much chance of anybody coming by.” So when Davis did show up, the only thing Chandler thought of to say was, “Where did you come from? I’d never seen him before, and all at once, he was there…It blew my mind that he could hear me holler from up there in that housing development…I don’t know whether anyone else heard it or not. The Lord must have picked the right one to tell to come down here. It’s unbelievable he heared [sic] me that far away.”
Chandler admits that if he were working on a job site and heard someone yelling that far away, he probably wouldn’t have left to find the person shouting.