Ottertail nurse saves NYM resident from oncoming train

By Tucker Henderson

Reporter

On November 11, hospice nurse John Wangler, of rural Ottertail, was making his rounds and stopped in New York Mills to mail some postcards. While waiting for the Post Office to open, a woman reminded him that it was Veteran’s Day and that the facility was closed for the day.

“I was waiting for about 5-10 minutes for the office to open up,” said Wangler. “I completely forgot it was Veteran’s Day, I don’t know why I didn’t remember that, my son is a veteran!”

Wangler left the Post Office and made his way onto Centennial 84 Drive before making a right turn onto Main Avenue South, where he stopped to wait for the train. He spotted a senior citizen’s walker laying on the tracks and quickly realized that its owner, Marlene Brown, 85, NY Mills, was lying next to it, facedown on the railroad tracks.

“It dawned on me, ‘oh my gosh, that’s somebody laying there,’” Wangler recalled. “Within the blink of an eye, I saw the train coming in my peripheral vision. By the grace of God, it’s like He took control. I jammed the car in park and I—I don’t even know how—I sprinted to this lady and you could see this train literally coming up.

“As I was running I see her look up and—it happened so fast—I grabbed her and I pulled her towards me,” he continued. “I could feel the percussion of the air blowing by us from the front of that train and I kind of lunged backwards, pulling her into me to get out of the line. I didn’t know if that big steel apron was going to clip her or throw the walker on us, I didn’t know. It happened so fast, you just do what the Good Lord tells us to do, help and not hurt.”

Wangler said that as the train passed, he experienced an adrenaline dump which he described as “out-of-body” and sat next to the train tracks, holding Brown, and reassessing the situation when a woman hopped out of her car to help him. Between the two of them, they were able to keep Brown safe and pull the walker, which was still stuck, out of the train tracks and set her back on it. NY Mills Chief of Police, Bobby Berndt, showed up to help resolve the emergency.

“I am a hospice nurse and also a care consultant with Hospice of the Red River and NY Mills was on my list kind of inadvertently,” said Wangler. “I was in Detroit Lakes and I just wanted to go to a local facility and call on them, you know just something that popped up during the day. I wanted to run over there for a follow up and stopped at the Post Office first.

“It was that delay waiting for it to open up, It was just so many pieces in play, so I left the Post Office and headed westbound. I took a right and that all unfolded, that’s how it happened. I was just doing my job, calling on the community.”

Despite the heroic actions on Wangler’s part, he hadn’t shared the story with anyone other than his brother and son.

“I haven’t told anybody other than my brother and I called my son, Grant,” he said. “Even though all the medicine I know, when you have stuff like that you have to talk to someone, so I called my son, who is a combat medic and an EMP in Park Rapids. I’ve been in medicine for 22 years and I know that I have to lean on my team. I haven’t told anyone else because I always figured, good things happen for a reason.”

“I have seen a lot of wonderful things in life,” said Wangler, choking up, “but just the thought of seeing someone potentially die is hard. In 20 plus years of medicine, you try so hard to save a life, but to be so close to it and to see the fear in that woman’s eyes, I don’t wish that upon anyone. By the grace of God, He was there with us when we got her off the tracks and everything is fine now. Adrenaline just takes over and you do what you have to do.”

Wangler quoted the Biblical verse of John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” 

He said that having read that verse in the past, he had no idea at the time that he would get so close to that very act. He credited divine timing as God put him in the right place at the right time to help someone in need.

“There’s a lot of things that went through my head,” he said. “After that, I was thinking, that is somebody’s 85 year old daughter and her mom and dad were looking down and God answered their prayers from that point of view. He put her in my life and I in her life at the right time to preserve her. To me, that’s really touching, from one human to another.

“I’ve always told my children to help and not hurt,” he continued. “And to be able to have that opportunity to put words into action is very humbling. What an honor to be able to help my fellow man and somebody I don’t even know and for her to be so gracious on top of that.”

Wangler moved up to the area four years ago and settled on Buchanan Lake outside of Ottertail with his wife and family to live closer to his wife’s mother. He mentioned that he is a true Cornhusker, a native of Nebraska, and had been a visitor in Minnesota for the past 20 years before they moved.

“You just look back in retrospect and connect those dots,” said Wangler. “I always dreamed  of seeing what Minnesota is and Minnesota is nothing but nice. To be up here as a member of the community, wow, this is just the cherry on the top of why Minnesota is so special. What an honor, it’s a scary honor I hope nobody has to experience. It’s so wild. I never in my wildest dreams thought I’d be able to help someone in this way. That was one hell of an experience, life is precious.”

Wangler said that Brown’s time on those train tracks was a much scarier life event than what he went through and wanted to be respectful of her experience.

“As soon as I got her up off those tracks and it was clear that we were safe, she said, ‘I can’t tell you what I experienced when I saw that train coming my way,’” he recalled. “‘Trying to figure out, that’s the way I’m going to end this life, I just prayed for help.’”

As Wangler attested, Brown’s prayers were answered and put him in that situation to preserve and protect her during her time of need.

“Just hearing those words,” said Wangler. “To see the grace of God in action is just… it feels like I wasn’t part of it if that makes sense… I don’t know how else to say it, you just do what you’re taught to do—run to the fire, run to it—help.”