Survivor of Deadly Crash Thanks Rescuers Three Decades Later

Healing from a trauma -- such as the 1986 car crash that instantly killed two of Lisa Beavers Hegewisch’s friends and fractured her skull – takes years, maybe decades.

For Hegewisch, survival also required skilled first responders who quickly transported her from the crumpled car crushed by a runaway dump truck filled with asphalt. In the months and years after she left the hospital, she worked with other trauma survivors. And she wished she could have personally thanked her saviors.

Hegewisch had that chance Monday during a press conference at Northview Fire/EMS Station 816 in Bowie.

“It took many, many years to get where I am today. It takes years to handle trauma. There will always be healing,” Hegewisch said. “This unfolded in such a beautiful way. This is definitely a huge, huge part of healing for me.”

She thanked and hugged a then-rookie firefighter who saw the crash while driving past and jumped in to help, along with a paramedic and other Prince George’s County Fire Department personnel past and present.

The reunion was meant to be, Hegewisch said.

It came about through Ron Siarnicki, former Prince George’s County fire chief who is now the executive director of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. The foundation helps families of fallen firefighters in the aftermath of their loss, and one program that helps is yoga.

As the staff planned a yoga session in Annapolis, they asked Hegewisch to lead the class.

During the session, Hegewisch told the audience that she had survived an accident, and described the ordeal. Siarnicki immediately remembered the crash at the intersection of Good Luck Road and Kenilworth Avenue in Riverdale, which killed two of her classmates from Pallotti High School.

She told Siarnicki she always wanted to reach out to the firefighters and paramedics who helped her that day, but never knew how. As the former Prince George’s County Fire chief, he reached out to the department, and the reunion was in motion.

Paramedic Joe Liguori climbed into the car with Hegewisch and told her Monday his wife was her nurse at Holy Cross Hospital. Ligouri said he applied pressure to Hegewisch’s open skull fracture until she was raced to the trauma center.

“I’m glad to see you’ve moved on,” Ligouri told her Monday. “Congratulations, you have a beautiful family.”

Mark Brady, the fire department’s public information officer, was a dispatcher who helped send responders to the accident scene that day.

“This is a call you never forget. That can be a good thing, that can be a bad thing. …Meeting a survivor, it’s huge.”

»Photos of Lisa Beaver Hegewisch with first responders, courtesy of Prince George’s County Fire Department