Family With Sick Child Stuck On Bridge During Rally

Keep Reading ↓

The Memphis Black Lives Matter rally had to shut down the I-40 bridge Sunday night with protesters refusing to leave.

Traffic could not get across, but a paramedic, Bobby Harrell, was determined to get to a child who was stuck on the bridge with his family.

“We received a call there was a child needing medical attention stuck in traffic up on the bridge and due to the protest going on the bridge the family was not able to get through traffic to get him to Le Bonheur,” Harrell said.

“The sheriff’s department had to escort us up the wrong way of the interstate to the child,” he said.

The photo above shows parents handing the child off to paramedics on the bridge.

Harrell said that after he had the very sick child in the ambulance, the driver had to go 25 minutes out of the way.

“We had to turn around and come back to West Memphis and cross over at MLK to get over to 55.”

Then from I-55, they headed in the direction of Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital. Harrell said that he knew about the protest on the bridge, so he had a contingency plan to take patients to Arkansas hospitals and also to fly critical patients to Memphis but he really didn’t plan to end up on the bridge.

“It was kind of tense. I really didn’t know what to expect going up there.”

Harrell got the child to Le Bonheur just in time and the child’s father stayed with the family’s car and was eventually able to get there.