A deadly wood-chipper accident that claimed the life of a Lehigh County teen is still under investigation, as emergency personnel emotionally recover from responding to the gruesome scene.

Isiah Bedocs, 17, was going to be a senior at Lehigh Career & Technical Institute, entering his fourth year of automechanics. His funeral was held Monday, according to his obituary.

“He loved spending time with his friends, listening to music, and taking vacations to the beach. His favorite place to spend time with his family was Ocean City, Maryland. Above all, Isiah was a loving son, brother, and friend. He will be truly missed by all who knew and loved him,” the obituary said.

A GoFundMe for his parents, Amy and Louis Bedocs, has raised $16,781 of the $20,000 goal as of Tuesday.

The accident is under investigation by the Pennsylvania State Police at the Bethlehem barracks, said Trooper Nathan Branosky.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Wage and Hour division of the U.S. Department of Labor have their own investigations and are working in tandem with each other, said Matthew Bierman, the assistant area director at the Lehigh Valley OSHA office. The Wage and Hour division is investigating because Bedocs was a minor, he said.

The OSHA investigation can last up to six months; if the agency finds there are issues, it will issue a citation, Bierman said.

Lehigh County would not release audio of the 911 calls from the incident or the call logs, citing Pennsylvania law that audio recordings are exempt from disclosure under the state’s Right to Know law, said Don Smith, director of the Lehigh County 911 Center.

Smith did confirm timestamps of a timeline lehighvalleylive.com created based on emergency radio broadcasts.

Troopers, fire crews and EMS responded when a traumatic injury was called in at 1:39 p.m. Aug. 9 at a home in the 3700 block of Excelsior Road in North Whitehall Township.

Bedocs was working with a friend on a summer job with a tree-cutting company, when his clothing caught in the wood chipper. His leg was injured and amputated, according to the broadcasts.

By 1:45 p.m. the first ambulance was on scene and troopers called for a medical helicopter at 1:48 p.m. A Geisinger Life Flight medical helicopter accepted and was on its way by 2:01 p.m.

Geisinger spokesman Matthew Mattei said the helicopter stationed in Lehighton was the closest unit to the incident at the time of request

Troopers and emergency medical personnel attempted to treat Bedocs, who was in and out of consciousness, the radio reports say.

The helicopter landed near the home at 2:15 p.m. and Bedocs was flown to Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Salisbury Township. Smith was unable to confirm a landing time at the hospital.

Bedocs was pronounced dead from multiple traumatic injuries at 2:55 p.m. at the hospital, Lehigh County Coroner Daniel A. Buglio said. The death was ruled an accident.

A trooper on scene made the call for a medical helicopter, Branosky said. For accidents with extensive injuries like this, “we would expedite getting the person to a hospital by the quickest means possible,” he said.

“Fortunately, they are very rare calls,” Branosky added.

A medical helicopter is called by the emergency responders, who have to do it immediately if they feel it’s necessary based on what they’re seeing at the scene, said Lehigh Valley Health Network spokesman Brian Downs.

The patient’s injuries and status, the length of time to get to the nearest hospital, and the supplies available on an ambulance or helicopter are all taken into consideration, officials said.

Numerous factors go into a helicopter being dispatched and landing where they are needed, Branosky and Downs said, including the location of the incident, availability of the helicopter/crew, if there’s an accessible landing zone nearby, the presence of power lines and the weather.

LVHN has its own medical helicopter vendor, and the aircraft are based at Kutztown, East Stroudsburg, Pottsville and Hazleton, Downs said.

Those locations were chosen because often a helicopter is most needed from a more distant location, and it saves time to respond and pick up a patient and fly one way, like to the trauma center at Cedar Crest, rather than have the helicopter based there, fly out and return to the same location, Downs said.

Ben Kirkpatrick, a supervisor with Northern Valley EMS since June, was one of the emergency personnel who responded to the accident scene in North Whitehall.

When it comes to mechanical injuries, “that was the most gruesome call I’ve ever run,” he said.

Kirkpatrick spoke of emergency responders focusing at the time on a call and patient care, but that it’s usually afterward when the emotional toll kicks in.

“No matter how hard you try, we always try to keep it separate: work is work, home is home. … It doesn’t always go that way,” he said. “Sometimes it’s soon after the call, sometimes it’s days after.”

Kirkpatrick has a long commute back to the Harrisburg area, and he said the drive was when the enormity of what happened in North Whitehall hit him.

Northern Valley uses Critical Incident Stress Management, or CISM, to help responders after draining calls such as that. State police has its Member Assistance Program (MAP), which provides counseling to troopers that experience traumatic events on the job, Branoksy said.

CISM includes debriefing after a traumatic event with the responders, with topics ranging from a peer-to-peer breakdown of the incident to discussing what responders saw and how they are sleeping at night.

Kirkpatrick, who has worked in EMS for 15 years and as a paramedic for eight of those, said it helps first responders realize they are not alone in their feelings.

When he first started, Kirkpatrick spoke of longtime industry expectations to “suck it up and go on the next call.” He had three former co-workers pass away by suicide.

But within the last five years or so, the newer generation in EMS is recognizing “its OK to not be OK, and it’s OK to actually talk about it.”

“It’s tough, it’s not easy...It takes a unique person to be able to do this,” he said.

Machine injuries can range from garbage disposals and lawn mowers, to chainsaws, snow blowers and industrial machines.

Kirkpatrack estimates seeing between five and 10 machine injury calls a year, more in the winter months with snow blowers.

Dr. Andrew Miller, the ER medical director for LVHN’s Cedar Crest hospital, said traumatic injuries like the wood-chipper accident are rare, and “hands down, by far” it’s more common to see hand injuries with snowplows, and leg and foot injuries from lawnmowers.

Teens are more likely injured by lawnmowers, with more adults hurting themselves with a snowblower.

If an extremity — a hand or foot — is stuck, do not try and pull it out, Kirkpatrick said. The first step is turning the machine off.

“You want to make sure the machine is off and the power source disconnected” so the machine doesn’t kick back on and cause further injuries or damage, he said.

Call 911, and the operator will start Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD), providing information to people on scene, “which is also why they ask a lot of questions,” Kirkpatrick said.

Some machines are enclosed, so witnesses may not see bleeding, but efforts should be made to control bleeding, either through direct pressure or fashioning a tourniquet.

“The biggest thing is don’t try to pull the extremity out,” Kirkpatrick said.

Blood control is key for machine injuries, and Miller agreed about applying direct pressure and using a tourniquet, but added using a tourniquet for too long can cause damage to an extremity.

Responding medical personnel may apply a tourniquet or add one for a patient, start an IV, secure an airway if need be, Kirkpatrick said. They can bandage wounds and provide some pain medication.

Miller said stabilizing, or immobilizing an arm or leg to keep people from moving can help.

Fire department’s often have the tools, sometimes literal power tools, to help. “Man versus machine” training help crews, from calls of a ring stuck on someone’s finger to a person trapped in agricultural equipment, Kirkpatrick said.

“It’s always obvious when someone has training,” he said. “It’s a great resource they have because we work in tandem with them.”

In those cases, fire crews can work to free a patient, EMS can provide care to the patient and police can control an accident scene.

When a patient arrives at the ER, doctors are looking at the ABCs: airway, breathing and circulation, Miller said.

“The circulation is key for these injuries,” he said, with arteries being the most important. “If you nick an artery, it’s worse than cutting through it. If you nick it, it will just keep bleeding.”

Stop the Bleed courses can help train bystanders in accidents and St. Luke’s University Health Network offers them in the Lehigh Valley. More information can be found at slhn.org/stop-the-bleed.

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Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com

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