BOWDOINHAM — A Maine National Guard medic who was first on the scene of a van crash on I-295 this week says she got to exercise her medical training.

Pfc. Lisa Bryant of Scarborough says the driver who was ejected in Bowdoinham wasn’t getting oxygen so she cleared the obstruction so he could breathe.

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She tells the Bangor Daily News that the man went from unconscious when she arrived to being conscious and talking by the time he was loaded onto a LifeFlight helicopter on Wednesday.

The 21-year-old University of Southern Maine student is part of the National Guard’s 133rd Engineer Battalion in Gardiner. She called the incident her first “real-world” application of her military medic training.

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