Locals come to aid of girl who severed finger

COEUR d'ALENE — Three local young people jumped to action when a girl was seriously injured Friday, July 21 while playing with friends on the docks near Tubbs Hill.

Tanner Waldon, 26, Shelbi Lindemann, 14, and Kayla Lang, 17, all of Post Falls, were nearby when the incident occurred.

"They were swimming close to us," Waldon said Wednesday. "Kayla asked her friends to move their stuff, and when they moved their stuff, Bella was trying to climb in the side of the dock where the fire station was."

Bella Goodwin, 12, of Coeur d'Alene was climbing on the fenced gate in front of where Coeur d'Alene Fireboat 3 is housed when she fell into the water. Her pinky finger caught in the fencing where the crossbars meet, breaking and then severing the finger from her right hand.

Bella pulled herself back onto the dock.

"She came up out of the water and came up to us, jokingly saying to us, because she was in shock, saying, 'Hey guys, I lost my finger,'" Waldon said. "She was holding her hand and covered in blood."

The trio sprang to action to help Bella up the dock ramp as her legs gave out and she fainted from the shock and blood loss. Waldon yelled for Lindemann and Lang to call 911.

"I didn't know what to do," Waldon said. "As I ran up the dock, I was yelling, 'Hey, there's a girl down here who lost her finger.'"

Lindemann and Lang have first aid and CPR training. They helped wrap Bella’s hand in a T-shirt and stayed with her until paramedics arrived. Waldon said they are the true heroes, although Bella was incredibly calm for what had just happened.

"She's a very young girl," Waldon said. "I took the scenario, 'What if this was my daughter?'"

The finger was saved, found still lodged in the fencing. Bella's family frantically called local doctors and hospitals to have it reattached. They found a surgeon in the Seattle area who could do it, so Bella was Life Flighted for immediate surgery just after midnight the morning of Saturday, July 22. She is now home and recovering, although it is not 100% certain the surgery will be successful in the long term. She has a follow-up appointment Thursday in Seattle.

"They had to cut open her wrist to harvest a vein to use so she could have blood flow back in her finger," said Bella's mom, Billie Jo Goodwin, a longtime Coeur d'Alene Resort employee who was working when the incident happened. Bella's dad, Tim Goodwin, who also works at The Resort, was also just a few blocks away when the accident occurred.

Billie Jo Goodwin praised Waldon, Lindemann and Lang for caring for Bella during such a traumatic incident. They have all been keeping in touch since it happened.

"These kids jumped in to help," Billie Jo Goodwin said. "I told them, 'You're our family's heroes for helping her.'"

Goodwin said she really wants the gate where this happened changed so this doesn't happen to anyone else.

"It's on the water, a public dock where people are playing, kids are jumping off it all day long," she said. "You would never think, and then this happens. It's super unsafe."

The area in question is considered the Third Street docks, where, according to Coeur d'Alene City Code, swimming and diving is not allowed within 100 feet. A number of signs on the mooring docks state, “No Swimming from the docks."

"It’s very unfortunate that accidents do occur. We do not want people to be injured on public property," said Troy Tymesen, city administrator for Coeur d'Alene. "We work very hard to lower and get rid of any hazards."

He said the city is always looking to educate about safety.

"Continuous improvement is something we strive to do," he said. "If there's any opportunity for that, we will look at it and get it done."