FORT WORTH - A former curator of the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth was reported in fair condition Monday evening after he was discovered with no pulse following a bizarre car crash Monday morning.
Dental workers revived Ron Tyler after his car smashed into their office at 4901 Bryant Irvin Boulevard.
"I would have been sitting there. Right there," said dental hygienist Jessica Weyman, pointing to the front of a car resting on the examination chair in her office. "A few more minutes, there would have been a patient in that chair."
It was about 8 a.m. when the car rocketed into the dental office of Dr. Gary Pointer.
"Looking out the front door, [I] saw trees, bricks and a car go flying by the front door," said dance instructor Debbi Jo Utter.
The car went airborne just a step or two from Utter's dance studio nearby.
"I'm sure the tree, the fence and the pole slowed him down," said Utter. "He was going fast."
Office workers rushed to the lifeless driver.
"[I] went back inside and got some gloves," said dental hygienist Julie Watson. "Came back out and noticed he was unresponsive; had no pulse."
Watson yelled for someone to bring the automated external defibrillator, or AED.
"[I] put the patches on him and shocked him and started CPR," Watson said. "Luckily there was an MD at the end of the building, in another office. He came down and took over chest compressions for us."
"Doing that CPR, you could see the color come back," Weyman said. "It was pretty amazing."
It took a number of "pretty amazing" coincidences to avoid any loss of life in the accident.
"This could have been a disaster," Utter said. "We have 1,500 kids a week coming through this building."
There were no kids at the dance studio; no one was in the dentist's chair; and a building full of people equipped to save the driver's life were right there.
And then there was this bit of luck:
"I'm usually not good under pressure, but luckily I held it together today... and fell apart afterward," Watson said.
The driver's family has asked for privacy. Witnesses said it appeared he crashed because of a medical problem.
E-mail jdouglas@wfaa.com
