Kinzer, a nurse’s aide, returned to her Oxford home last Friday from a 13-hour shift at a nursing home in Harrison. It was around 9 a.m., her fiancé had left for work, and she was in her backyard with her two young daughters.
When she went to grab a drink from inside, everything went wrong.
Kinzer’s foot caught on the doormat, causing her to trip and fall forward into the door. She tried to brace herself, but the window in the door was a single-glass pane, and her right arm went through it.
She pulled her arm out, and it immediately started spurting blood. The glass severed a main artery and cut through several tendons and muscles.
Kinzer needed help fast, but her phone was upstairs.
“I ended up trying to run over to my neighbor’s yard, and I realized after probably about 30 seconds she didn’t hear me,” Kinzer said. “At that point, I was continuing to scream for help, and I went into the garage because I needed a compress to try to stop the bleeding as much as I could. I thought I was going to pass out, so I told my daughter, ‘Everything is going to be OK. Mommy’s going to be fine. I am going to pass out, but please go and get help.’”
Kinzer managed to walk to the edge of her yard. She said she knelt on the grass, losing consciousness when she looked up and saw several men running toward her.
Cleves-based construction company Hendy, Inc., was replacing curbs on Kinzer’s street when they heard her cries for help. Joe Petrey was the first to rush over.
“I just thought that the dog had attacked her. She came running out, and her babies were following her and the dog was right behind them, and I just saw the bleeding, and it was bleeding pretty bad, and I just figured, ‘I know what to do,’” Petrey said.
Petrey took his belt off and wrapped it around Kinzer’s arm, using it as a tourniquet to slow the bleeding.
“Like the biggest relief,” Kinzer said. “I thought it was a miracle. I thought it was God sent. I thought it was just meant to be. And not only was Joe there, but half of his crew was behind him. I knew at that moment that between all of these men, I might be OK, that I might have a chance.”
Petrey said he had his son, who works with him, call 911 while other crew members helped keep Kinzer conscious until the ambulance arrived.
“It was just instinct,” Petrey said. “Everybody should have that instinct. The thing was to get her to calm down, to stop the bleeding and calm the babies down, and they were good to go.”
It took first responders several minutes to reach Kinzer’s home. Petrey said those minutes felt like an eternity because whether Kinzer bled out came down to seconds.
“They couldn’t get here fast enough,” Petrey said.
Once at the hospital, Kinzer underwent eight surgeries and procedures to repair the artery, nerves, tendons and muscles. Her arm is heavily bandaged and will require up to a year of healing and recovery. Medical staff told her she may never regain mobility in her fingers.
Despite the bleak possibility, Kinzer said it’s the least of her worries. She’s grateful to be alive and that she was able to reunite with the man who helped save her life.
Hendy, Inc. is on a month-long job in the neighborhood. When the crew returned on Monday to continue work on Kinzer’s street, the mom of two didn’t hesitate to run outside and thank them — especially Petrey.
“I think I made a new best friend,” Kinzer said.
When we sat down with both of them on Tuesday, Petrey said he didn’t consider what he’d done as heroic in the moment. It was just the right thing to do.
“It was just helping someone out. That’s just what I do. I love to help people,” Petrey said.
Petrey has continued to wear the belt he used to save Kinzer’s life. His crew has dubbed it the “life-saving belt.” Kinzer has joined the crew in affectionately calling Petrey “The Hero of Frogtown.”
“The police officer said if Joe had not applied the tourniquet, the outcome would not have been the same. I am very thankful for Joe,” Kinzer said. “They always say, ‘Once a west sider, always a west sider,’ and I grew up on the west side. We moved out here to raise our family in the more country, and it’s crazy that a west sider ended up saving my life all the way out here in Oxford.”
Kinzer penned a heartfelt letter to Hendy, Inc., the first responders and medical staff who helped her that day.
About the Author