LAUREL HILL — Trecia and Robert Chedister have many nice things to say about their neighbor, Don Bland.
The Chedisters, who live in woods outside Laurel Hill, met Bland, 47, a U.S. Air Force Reserve major, when they moved next door to him in May of 2006.
In addition to describing him as the "best neighbor in the world," "awesome," and "lucky to have him," they can now add the word "lifesaver."
Bland's quick thinking and actions saved Robert Chedister's life on Aug. 11, when about 15 minutes of yard work led to near tragedy.
‘STUNG THREE TIMES IN FIVE SECONDS’
Robert Chedister and Bland were going to use Bland's tractor to move concrete construction gravel to a driveway for the Chedisters' portable garage.
"I had come home from work and I was there by myself with my four dogs, and I went over to see if he was ready," Chedister said.
They began to place boards at the bottom of the driveway so the gravel wouldn't wash out.
That's when trouble started.
"We disturbed a yellow jacket nest (in the ground) and were swarmed by them," Robert Chedister, 66, a retired U.S. Air Force major general, said. "I got stung three times in five seconds."
"They missed me by inches," Bland said. "I was standing right there and was able to move away in time."
While yellow jacket stings are a painful annoyance to some, in Chedister's case, they were life-threatening.
While he's not officially allergic to insect stings, Chedister said, "About a week and a half before this, I was cleaning our garden and got bit about 15 times by fire ants. I didn't think anything about it."
He said he thinks the combination of fire ant bites that previous week, plus the yellow jacket stings, caused the medical emergency.
A 12-WEEK SCARE
"I have a 10-year history of being ill after bug bites and stings, and spent time in an Atlanta hospital getting 12 weeks of treatment in 2006," Chedister said.
Ten years ago, he had been showing dinner guests around when two fire ants bit him on his left foot.
"Immediately my arm started itching and I told my wife, 'I have to get some Benadryl.' He told her he didn't feel right, and he was going to lie down.
Instead of lying down, he fainted and hit his head. That led to complications including brain injury, a coma, and being clinically dead at least four times, he said.
His wife spent over 12 weeks advocating for his life and continual medical care, making doctors send him to the Shepherd Center for brain and spinal cord injury in Atlanta.
During that hospital stay, doctors exposed him to fire ants — he'd been bitten by two that day — to verify an allergy diagnosis.
Next, "they loaded me up with EpiPens," Chedister said, referring to a device that injects adrenaline. The couple keep some in the house, and Chedister’s coworkers at Bevilacqua Research Corporation in Niceville “have one at every desk.”
While he was in the hospital, Bland "looked after our house for that whole three months," Robert Chedister said. That included mowing their lawn and taking care of other tasks.
"I just made sure everything was secure," Bland said of that time.
After the yellow jackets stung Chedister Wednesday, he said his neighbor once again came to the rescue.
THANKING HIS LUCKY STARS
After the bee stings, Bland asked Chedister to go indoors and take some Benadryl, "and he said we should just sit down and relax for awhile," Chedister said.
Bland said he'd been around when Chedister had issues, and it was better to discontinue the driveway work in case anything else happened.
"I would say within 10 minutes after (the stings), he started having symptoms, and about 20 minutes later it got more severe and I started looking for the epis," Bland said.
"Don asked for my blood pressure cuff. He could not find it, but he found my EpiPens,” Chedister said. “When he came back to the front room, I tried to move to the bathroom and fell into a chair. A few minutes later I awoke with Don having hit me with an EpiPen and he had called (an) ambulance.
"Two ambulances showed up, and with Don's help they moved me 18 miles down to the Crestview hospital.
"After two hours of testing and Don explaining everything he had done, the doctors told me to go home and thank my (lucky) stars I had a neighbor who knew what to do in an emergency," Chedister said.
‘HE SAVED MY LIFE’
Bland had a plan, and that made all the difference, Chedister said.
"Don knew to get me to take some Benadryl," Chedister stated in a letter to the News Bulletin. "He knew to get me to sit down and rest. He knew what to do with the EpiPen, when it was the only thing that got my heart and lungs started again — when I went into anaphylactic shock.
“In short, he saved my life on 11 Aug 2016.”
Preparedness is the best thing a person can do during crises, Bland said Thursday.
"Basically, all I tried to do was manage the symptoms as they were happening,” Bland said. “When he crashed, which is how I refer to it, he started having a severe breathing difficulty almost immediately.
"The only thing I'd like to say is that you really have to be ready. Situations can evolve into a crisis without warning, and being prepared for the crisis — that's what you have to pay attention to.”
Chedister said Bland also contacted his wife, who was in Arkansas at the time, and his sister, a Valparaiso resident, to let them know what had happened.
For his part, Robert Chedister would like to do the same.
"There are many things our great military folks do every day to keep this country free,” he said.
“I feel like this story may help you recognize one of our heroes for just saving his neighbor's life.”
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Laurel Hill man saves neighbor's life after bee attack