Wangler saved the life of a woman who fell on railroad tracks

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

Ottertail nurse John Wangler was honored last week for saving the life of a woman who had fallen on the railroad tracks on Main Avenue South in New York Mills on November 11, 2024. With nearly 20 people in attendance, including law enforcement, family and friends, Wangler was given a Lifesaving Award for saving the life of Marlene Brown last year.

After leaving the Post Office on November 11, 2024, Wangler 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 said in an interview with the NY Mills Dispatch last year. “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 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 last year. “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 last year. “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.

During last week’s award ceremony, which was held as part of the NY Mills City Council meeting, the council thanked Wangler for his efforts in saving the life of another individual and law enforcement commended him for his actions in putting the welfare of his own life above another individual in need.