Four Injured, Including Two Allina Paramedics, in County Road 35 Crash

Brian Nagel and Tim Daly were transporting a patient in their rig early Saturday morning in a driving snowstorm when the unthinkable happened. 

The two men, paramedics for Allina Ambulance, were involved in a head-on accident with another vehicle around 1:30 a.m. Saturday morning. Both vehicles were badly damaged, as evidenced by a photo broadcast via Twitter by FOX 9 News. 

According to reports, Daly, the driver, was badly injured, but attempted to ensure his patient's safety and render aid to both Nagel and the driver of the SUV, 51-year-old Marilyn Paumen of Monticello. 

Paumen was immediately transported to North Memorial Hospital via ambulance (Air Care was not deployed due to the weather). A Caring Bridge site has been set up for updates on her status. She is currently critical, having suffered a stroke due to trauma in the brain. 

Investigators determined the Allina patient, Laura Worley, 35, of St. Michael, was the person who called 911 after the crash. Worley was not injured, and was moved to a replacement ambulance and continued on to Buffalo Hospital.

Resurrection Lutheran Church in Monticello will be hosting a prayer vigil for the Paumen family at 6 p.m. Monday, Jan. 20, to pray for her and her family. 

Nagel, who remains in ICU, is surrounded now by family and friends and is breathing with assistance of a ventilator. His Caring Bridge site can be found here with updates coming frequently. He currently lives in Buffalo. 

As for Daly, who is known well in the Albertville community as a volunteer and medic, a long road of recovery awaits. Patch is in touch with the Albertville Fire Department, who might be organizing some sort of assistance for the Daly family. Tim will be bound to a wheelchair for some time after his surgeries to repair lower body injuries. 

The Wright County Sheriff's Department is investigating the crash. 

Here's the update from Allina Health EMS via their Facebook Page: 

Tim was driving and did his best to manage the situation – reportedly even attempting to render aid to others despite the fact that he himself suffered significant bilateral orthopedic injuries to both lower extremities. Tim faces future corrective surgery and has been told to expect up to three months or so living from a wheel chair. He is open to hearing from you – he is on the Allina Health e-mail system - your thoughts and well wishes will no doubt be welcome.
There is a pending offer for Allina Health EMS to team up with Albertville Fire Department to build a temporary wheel chair ramp at his house. Tim is appreciative of the offer and will be letting us know in the coming days if he will need that type of support. So stay tuned, we may need your skills with a hammer and saw!
Paramedic Brian Nagel remains in the ICU, intubated and on a ventilator. His parents from Florida and sister from New York are at his side. Brian has a long road ahead, but he has literally thousands of people from across the country pulling, and praying for him.
His family established a CaringBridge site, and as I write this there have been more than 5,500 visits from people from across the nation - even though the site is less than 24 hours old! Brian’s family has expressed their overwhelming gratitude for the prayers and well wishes.
On a related note, Brian’s family is supportive of having a uniformed Allina Health EMS staff member serve as sort of a family liaison at the hospital. Beginning tomorrow we will be staffing such a position to provide whatever support Brian’s family needs. Jeff Czyson is coordinating that effort, so watch for your opportunity to help out in this way.
Remember, both colleagues will need our support for a long time to come.
Thanks to everyone for your commitment to our injured colleagues. 
Brian LaCroix, President Allina Health EMS

The Wright County Report was released Monday, Jan. 20: 

On January 18, 2014 at 1:26 AM, the Wright County Sheriff's Office was notified of a two vehicle crash on County Road 35 East near Eaken Avenue Northeast in Buffalo Township. The initial investigation indicates that a westbound Allina Ambulance being driven by Timothy Daly, 43, of  Albertville collided head on  with an eastbound 2013 Lincoln SUV being driven by Marilyn Paumen, 51, of Monticello.

Daly, and Paramedic Brian Nagel, 30, of Greenwood, were transported to Allina Hospital in Buffalo. Nagel was later transferred to North Memorial Hospital in Robbinsdale. Paumen was transported directly to North Memorial Hospital. A patient was in the ambulance at the time of crash but was not believed to have been injured in the crash. The patient continued on to Allina Hospital in Buffalo via a different ambulance.  The accident remains under investigation by the Wright County Sheriff's Office.