EXTENDED ROLLING HILLS– With the help of an ax, Firefighter Cole Gomoll cut the edge of the collapsed windshield. Inside the vehicle, Tiger Woods was trapped, with his seat belt fastened and a sheet over him, so as not to be further injured by the flying debris during the rescue attempts.
Gomoll cut a long tail from one end of the windshield to the other. Then he and another Los Angeles County firefighter snatched the glass.
They left the ax and took a stretcher.
Within minutes, an ambulance rushed to a trauma hospital to admit the famous patient.
It would be hours before the news spread around the world. But for Gomoll and the other nine members of Fire Station 106 in Rolling Hills Estates, California, it only took 12 minutes for the call, which initially reported a road collision and a person trapped in a vehicle to get an answer.
“He’s just another patient,” Gomoll told The Associated Press on Station 106 on Friday.
Gomoll and the rest of the station, including Battalion Chief Dean Douty, pointed out that anyone in a situation as difficult as Woods would have received the same attention.
“I didn’t know who was in the vehicle,” said Captain Joe Peña. He explained that a sheriff’s deputy informed him later.
And everyone else would have had the same privacy. Firefighters refused to disclose the conversation they had with the athlete or his condition at the scene of the accident.
“His identity doesn’t really matter in what we do,” said Captain Jeane Barrett.
Even so, those minutes marked an important milestone in Gomoll’s career. It was the first time that the 23-year-old, a former member of the Navy, removed with tools a person trapped in a vehicle in an actual accident, not in practice.
Gomoll joined the station in August, about a mile from the crash site. He was on probation and, just three weeks ago, had performed similar rescues with Barrett, who is his supervisor.
“We trained for such situations,” Gomoll said.
On Thursday, Woods was transferred from Harbor-UCLA Medical Center to Cedars-Sinai to “continue orthopedic care and recovery,” hospital officials said. On Friday night, a post on Woods’ Twitter account indicated that the golfer “underwent procedures following his injuries this morning.”
“The procedures have been successful and he is now recovering,” the message added.
Woods was injured Tuesday when the 2021 Genesis sports truck traveling on a steep stretch of highway hit a median in a coastal suburb of Los Angeles. The vehicle invaded the opposite lanes and overturned several times.
The athlete suffered multiple fractures in the tibia and right fibula. It was necessary to stabilize these lesions with a rod in the tibia.
Additional trauma to the bones of the foot and ankle required screws and nails.