EFFINGHAM, Ill. (WCIA) — Terrie Tudor should not be alive today. She said it herself, along with the three firefighters who saved her life on Sept. 29, 2023.
Tudor and her friend, Dan Smith, were visiting from Missouri to see family friends in Greenup. They watched the marching band’s halftime show at Cumberland Community High School and then headed out. The two were driving on Route 40 near Teutopolis where a tanker truck carrying anhydrous ammonia had crashed.
Five people were killed and around half of the 7,500 gallons of ammonia the truck was carrying leaked out.
“I shouldn’t have been able to have another birthday,” the retired teacher from Missouri said.
But, after spending time in three different hospitals over nine weeks, she is meeting two of the three first responders responsible for saving her life. John Stroud, Ben Siemer and Johnathon Paholke are the reason Tudor can still care for her mom and visit friends across the Midwest.
“Knowing what happened and just seeing the scene, it looked like a really bad horror movie,” Paholke said.
When Siemer arrived on the scene that night, he remembered seeing a hazy fog, smelling the chemical and noticing cars off to the side in ditches. Tudor was in one of those cars.
“I just grabbed a sweatshirt, and put it over my face because I couldn’t breathe,” Tudor described.
Next thing you know, something caught the attention of the Effingham Firefighters.
“John had heard a small honk and the light on the door clicked on,” Siemer said.
They found her and started using equipment to help her start breathing again. It was one of the necessary steps taken to save her life.
“Next thing I remember is coming out of a coma,” Tudor reflected.
She was blind, using a ventilator and on continuous dialysis in hospitals in Springfield, Rockford and Hinsdale. Tudor has had five surgeries on her eyes alone.
Now, to see who the first responders are and fill in some memory gaps, it’s a dream Tudor is still waking up from.
“Just the ability to say thank you. I know it’s their job, but it’s my life,” she said.
For the firefighters, they said it was an unbelievable feeling and keeps them motivated each day.
“It’s almost like this big weight of joy that came through,” Siemer said.
Tudor will forever be thankful to all three firefighters who rushed to her side that night. They stood by her side on her worst day, and have now been reunited again on one of her best.
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