“Nurse Sue”, as she was known shortly after administering aid at a Brown County crash scene the day before Mother’s Day, is telling her inspiring story now to Seehafer News.
Susie Bown of Manitowoc is an operating room nurse at Holy Family Memorial Medical Center. Bown and her Chiropractor husband, Dr. Derek Bown, came upon the scene of a motorcycle crash in which Jessie Burmeister of Kewaunee was dragged 550 feet by a truck and was pinned beneath one of its’ wheels.
“I just got down and prayed with him,” she explained. “They were going to back the truck off of him, but I advised them not to do that. I didn’t want them to incur any more injuries to the man. I told them to wait for the people who knew what they were doing. I told him that because he was screaming ‘Get the truck off!’”
She no sooner got the beginning of a prayer going with the victim when emergency personnel arrived and Bown said she could tell by his injuries and the fact he was wearing his full motorcycle garb that he was going to be okay.
Sue and Derek then left the scene and found out on Facebook a couple of days later that Burmeister was looking for “nurse sue” and Channel 2 News had put out a Facebook post.
“Derek’s office girl and good friend of ours, Becky Osterloth, recognized the story and said ‘I think this is Suzie Bown,’” Bown revealed. “It went on my Facebook feed, and I responded to Jesse, and said ‘Yes I’m here, I’m the lady. I’m glad to hear you are doing well. I had been praying for you, and I’m glad tp hear you are going to make it.”
So, the two of them started going back and forth on Facebook and Susie got to text message with his wife, and the rest she says, is history.
Bown stated the “real heroes are the lady who pulled the car over to stop the truck that evening and those emergency personnel who do this day in and day out. I was just blessed to be acknowledged by Jesse and his wife Erin.”
We asked Suzie, if she believes it was more than just a coincidence that they were in the area.
“No doubt in my mind, God’s timing is everything,” she responded. “Jesse felt that way too. We usually eat a little bit later, but we couldn’t get our reservation when we wanted it so we ended up going to the restaurant early. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, we were there for the right reason at the right time. I can’t say I had anything to do with it. It was all God.”
The local woman said she and Jesse were able to meet at the hospital for the first time last Sunday.
“We both wept a little bit, and embraced. It was really rewarding to see that he is going to be ok.” she recalled. “He will need skin grafting, and he will walk again.”
He could be released from the hospital this weekend.
Bown said “they’ll stay in touch as long as he wants to and she’ll keep lifting him up in prayer.”
Susie also credited her husband, Derek, for stepping up during the incident as well and temporarily directing traffic around the accident scene until professional help could arrive.