Texas Off-Roaders Rescue Nurses Stranded on Icy Hills

When Mikki Sells and her fellow nurses tried driving home Tuesday night, their truck started sliding backward down a steep icy hill in Weatherford, Texas. Stranded at the top and unable to move, they knew exactly who to call.

Kevin Barwell runs Trendsetter Customs, an off-road shop in Weatherford. When winter storms hit North Texas last weekend, he didn't wait for someone to ask for help. He started organizing volunteers with four-wheel drive vehicles to transport essential workers through dangerous conditions.

Since Friday morning, Barwell and his team have been running a makeshift ambulance service for nurses. His Saturday started at 5 a.m., shuttling healthcare workers to the 6 a.m. shift change, then continued through the 2 p.m. and 10 p.m. shifts. Between nurse runs, he pulled stranded cars out of ditches and off frozen roads.

For nurses like Sells, these volunteers became the difference between showing up for patients and staying home. "We're nurses. We have to be there to help people," she explained. "Without us, they wouldn't have anybody."

When Sells called Tuesday night, Barwell had just walked through his front door after the last delivery. He was about to shower when his phone rang with her distress call. Five minutes later, he arrived at the hilltop where the nurses waited in the cold.

Sunny's Take

Barwell doesn't want recognition for what he considers basic human decency. A 20-year military veteran, he simply says everyone needs help during bad times, and this qualified as a bad time. But his humble approach doesn't diminish the impact of what he and his volunteers accomplished.

For three days straight, they ensured every nurse made every shift at Weatherford hospitals. No healthcare worker got stranded. No shift went understaffed. The volunteers asked for nothing in return, not even gas money.

Sells has other ideas about recognition. She wants to give Barwell a big hug and make sure he knows how much his selfless work meant. While he was thinking about first responders getting where they needed to be, nurses were thinking about him as their own first responder.

The volunteer group continues monitoring calls for assistance as freezing conditions persist across North Texas. As long as roads stay dangerous and nurses need rides, Barwell and his team will keep their trucks running.

Sometimes heroes drive monster trucks instead of ambulances.