Seventy-four-year-old Oregon resident Joe Wyatt was preparing his 32-foot Allegro recreational vehicle for a cross country trip when he took a sharp blow to his head.

Two 13-year-old boys, Brock Belinske and Chase Bodeman, were passing by and came to Wyatt’s rescue.

“They were the nicest kids,” said 72-year old Fran Wyatt, Joe’s wife.

“Those boys were skating down the road and seen Joe stagger when he hit the slide-out on our RV that comes out and it has real sharp edges on it. He had protectors on it, he had just taken them off, and he turned around and he ran right into the thing. This is steel that he ran into. It’s kind of like the end of a sword. He had a bad gouge in his head and he was bleeding and staggering around.

Chase Bodeman and Brock Belinske

“The kids saw him, they walked across the road and down our gravel driveway, and talked to him. They just came up to the door and knocked, and he could have laid there for I don’t know how long and I’d have never known it.

“They stuck right there while I got some supplies and tried to clean him up and everything. He was full of blood and the boys seemed to understand what I was doing and how I was doing it because we asked them, ‘Well, how do you know so much about this?’ and they said, ‘We studied it in school.’”

Brock said he applied techniques learned in Health class.

“It looked bad,” Fran said. “Of course, your head’s skin is so thin and all, and by the time I’d seen him his face was full of blood, his eyes were full of blood, his arms were full of blood, and they stayed a little while until I got him cleaned up and then left.

“I’ll be dog gone, but more than 15 to 20 minutes later, they came back and said, ‘Is there anything else we can help you with?’ I said, ‘Well, I’ve got to get him in the house and let him lay down so I can talk to him if I actually have to call or take him to the hospital or to an urgent care. So, anyhow, they helped me get him in the house.”

Brock attends Eisenhower Middle School, Chase attends Fassett Middle School, and the two have been friends since kindergarten and still play on the same baseball team.

The two boys were roller-blading to a friend’s home when they stopped to help Joe.

“He was near his camper and we just thought he was lying down. Then he rolled over and a bunch of blood was on the ground,” Brock said. “We went over there to see if he was OK, and he said to go get his wife.

“We got his wife and she came out and brought a towel and some water, and we just put that on his head, and we held the pressure on his head and his wife cleaned it out.”

The Belinskes live on nearby Enos Street. Brock is the son of Ryan and Jennifer Belinske and Chase lives with his mother, Laura Berryman.

“I asked them what their names and addresses were and I did call their mother and told her how proud she should be of these boys, who are just good friends,” Fran said. “Then I wrote them a letter and sent them some money for pizza. It seemed such a heart-warming story.”

Brock relayed the story to his mother later that day.

If it were not for the two boys, Joe might have continued lying on the ground in 90-plus degree heat.

“Brock said, ‘He lost a lot of blood, Mom. He could have passed out or something,’” Jennifer said. “Who knows how long he was lying out there or how long he could have been lying out there because she was inside packing?

“They got his wife, and Brock said she was all upset, which I am sure she would be seeing how there was blood. That was very nice of those boys. You know, there is a lot of punky little 13-year-old boys so they were very good,” Jennifer continued.

Fortunately for Joe, a retired Columbia Gas employee, he did not have to go to the hospital.

“I got some ice on it and stuff like that, stopped the bleeding, and gave him an aspirin. He went to the couch and then laid there for quite a while,” Fran said.

“The thing about this is, trying to get a bandage on a person’s head and I’m trying to get all the hair out of it so it would heal and wouldn’t scab. I put on two gauze bandages and then tied a white hanky around it, and he slept well through the night.”

This is not the family’s first brush with disaster. Their son, Doug Wyatt, and his wife, Francine, and their family lost their Millbury home during the June 5, 2010 EF-4 tornado that took seven lives.

“He’s rebuilt and he’s in pretty good shape,” said Fran.

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