Man trapped under truck rescued by 8-year-old boy
Barrett Bentley, 8, of Grovetown, saved the
life of his mothers friend, Hugh Chisholm, when Barrett jacked up a car that had fallen on Chisholm while the man was working underneath it.
To Barrett, helping Chisholm when he was in trouble was just a natural response.
Photo by Jim Blaylock
Barrett Bentley doesn't understand what the big deal is or why he is getting so much attention for what he did.
"It was rather nice of him to get me out of a jam," joked Hugh Chisholm of Augusta.
On the muggy afternoon of May 11, 8-year-old Barrett was putting his dirt bike away when he heard cries for help and found Chisholm's legs sticking out from under a truck that had collapsed on him.
Chisholm, a friend of Barrett's family, had brought the small truck to work on it at the Bentleys' Meadowlark Lane home in Grovetown. The truck, which was put on ramps and jacks on a small hill, rolled off the ramps and onto Chisholm, landing on his arm and pinning his large frame in the small space beneath the truck.
"I could breathe," Chisholm said. "It was below my rib cage, but I couldn't move."
Chisholm told Barrett to get his mother, Tricia Barrett Bentley, from inside the house.
"She came out there, but she didn't know how to work the jack, so I had to jack it up," Barrett said.
So, Barrett quickly and calmly put bricks behind the truck's tires, put the jack together and lifted the truck the 5- or 6-inches Chisholm needed to slide out, Bentley said.
"He's a great kid. He did just an outstanding thing," said Prudence Tuggle, Barrett's second grade teacher at Blue Ridge Elementary School. "I think that is a phenomenal feat for an 8-year-old."
Being a hero is nothing new to Barrett. He dove into the deep end of his grandmother's pool last summer to save his little brother Blake, then 3, who had fallen in.
"Barrett jumped in after him and was going underwater to help keep his brother up out of the water," Bentley said.
"I am very proud of him. He's a good kid, a very good kid."
Like Blake, Chisholm emerged from his accident relatively unscathed - receiving only scratches, bruises and a sore arm. Though Chisholm's situation was not life threatening, he said it was serious and admitted he might have been underneath the truck for a while waiting on emergency responders if not for Barrett.
"He's, as far as boys go, more grown up than most other boys his age," Chisholm said. "It is something he will look back on and say, 'that was something else."'
To Barrett, who likes math and wants to be a doctor, helping out in both situations was a natural response.
"The fact that he doesn't understand that what he did was very special should tell everybody a lot about him - that he knows the right thing to do," Tuggle said. "You do the right thing, and you don't expect any great accolades."