'You just go ahead and help.' Cincinnati's U.S. Rep. Brad Wenstrup, who helped in congressional baseball shooting, aids train-crash victim

Maybe someone will change his title from representative to rescue hero.

Twice in a little more than a half-year, U.S. Rep. Brad Wenstrup found himself part of an unforeseeable emergency and, without hesitation, jumped in to help.

The Cincinnati Republican, who's also a physician, was among other GOP members Wednesday on an Amtrak train taking them to a retreat when the train crashed into a truck in Virginia. He spoke to The Enquirer Wednesday afternoon.

He and several other lawmakers who also happen to be doctors filed out of the train to check out the scene and rushed to the injured.

Wenstrup's reaction was reminiscent of when he aided U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise when he was shot during a congressional baseball practice June 14 in Alexandria, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.

In this emergency, no representatives suffered serious injuries.

"I got to one of the exits as quickly as I could," said Wenstrup, of Cincinnati's Columbia Tusculum neighborhood. U.S. Rep. Phil Roe, a Tennessee Republican who also is a physician, was right behind him. The two split up and headed for two injured men on the ground.

The victim Wenstrup tended to was bleeding from his nose and around his mouth. "I was maintaining his airways, making sure he was breathing," Wenstrup said.

The lawmaker made it clear that he wasn't alone helping the man. "We had about seven or eight doctors with us," he told The Enquirer. "All lawmakers," plus one spouse who is also a doctor.

"He was breathing but he was full of blood," Wenstrup said. "I was able to check to see if he had blood in his mouth. A good sign was he tried to bite back."

The group took various jobs to try to stabilize the victim until paramedics were able to take the man away.

"Hopefully he'll make it," Wenstrup said. He noted that the other man, whom Roe tried to tend to, died from his crash injuries.

Wenstrup shrugged off his impulse to help – this time and in June.

"You know, we were in a community," he said, referring to his actions Wednesday. "Police and fire everywhere. Everyone stayed very calm. And everyone made sure they were OK."

The situation with Scalise was different because he had to wait until the shooting stopped, Wenstrup said, but then, too, it was pretty much reflex to help.

"I guess you’ve got something in front of you and you hope you can do something to help," Wenstrup said. "You just go ahead and help. That’s all I was really thinking about at the time."