SUNDAY STORY:Friends for life

In the middle seat of a Chevrolet Suburban driving through the dark streets of Ensenada, Mexico, three Newport-Mesa teenagers held their friend in their arms. Flagging down pedestrians and passing motorists, the boys desperately fought against a language barrier to find a hospital.

With one boy holding him from behind and two others on either side, they applied constant pressure to 18-year-old Telford Cottam Jr.’s upper arm. Jonsen Carmack was pressing so hard that his arm was cramping — and the hospital was nowhere in sight. Jonsen, Danny Furman and Brett Auer were holding Telford’s life in their hands.

If they let go, he could bleed to death in minutes.

A half an hour earlier, Telford had sliced his arm through a plate glass window during a water fight with friends at a private club in a small town near Ensenada, where the group of Newport Harbor High School students were vacationing with some parents. The glass shattered around Telford’s right arm, cutting through a main artery and severing every nerve.

Instantly, Telford said he knew what had happened and that it wasn’t good.

“I didn’t think I was going to make it, for sure,” Telford said.

His friends reached him in seconds, but he was already becoming dizzy from the amount of blood he’d lost.

Telford was bleeding out like a fire hose, and Brett and Danny, both seasonal Newport Beach lifeguards, and Jonsen, a former Newport Beach Junior Lifeguard, knew they needed to apply pressure to stop the bleeding.

They tried to call for an ambulance, then decided they would have better luck driving Telford to a hospital themselves. With a parent at the wheel, they carried Telford into the Suburban.

It was nearing midnight, and with some of the street lights broken in town, the roads were dark, and it was difficult to see, Danny said. Running stoplights, they tried asking everyone they saw for help, but almost no drivers would roll down their car windows.

Finally, a taxi driver said he would guide them to the nearest hospital.

Nearly 40 minutes had passed from the time of the accident till they reached the hospital. The three boys never once let go of Telford’s arm, and he didn’t lose any blood while in the car.

“They knew that they had no choice. They had to hold it because if they didn’t, I would die,” Telford said.

There was temporary relief when they finally reached a hospital, but it soon turned to terror when the group realized the hospital staff didn’t seem capable of handling such an emergency.

In transferring Telford from the car to a makeshift wheelchair, the boys had to let go of his arm. Once again, Telford started bleeding at an alarming speed. Hospital staff pushed Telford’s friends away, telling them they had to get out of the operating room.

“That was the scariest part, just them separating us from him,” Danny said.

Seeing the volume of his own blood pouring out, Telford started hyperventilating. He said he was closing his eyes and preparing to die when the doctors put him under.

A nurse told the boys that their friend had a 10% chance of living, Brett said.

At 1:30 a.m., one of the adults in the group called Telford Cottam Jr.’s parents, Telford Cottam Sr. and Monica Cottam, at their Costa Mesa home.

“Oh my god, I had so many thoughts,” Telford Cottam Sr. said.

Telford Cottam Sr. immediately ran to get his neighbor, Wernher Ovalle, a doctor at Hoag Hospital who was able to speak Spanish to the surgeons operating on Telford Cottam Jr. in the Mexican hospital. Once they learned his son was stable, the two started driving to Ensenada. They discussed options about how best to get Telford to an American hospital. A private plane was available, but that meant no medical staff on board for the short flight, and driving on a bumpy road could jolt Telford, causing further damage.

Once at the hospital, Ovalle immediately saw Telford and found there was no blood going to his right arm — if Telford stayed in Mexico, he probably would have lost his arm, Ovalle said.

“I knew I needed to get him out of there,” Ovalle said.

After 12 hours in the Ensenada hospital, Telford was loaded onto a medical transport plane to Orange County and taken directly to Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, where hospital staffers were awaiting his arrival.

Three months later, Telford has undergone three surgeries — including a 17-hour operation at UCLA to repair his nerves. The tanned teenager with brown curly hair still doesn’t have feeling in his right arm, which he keeps in a sling. Doctors said the nerves heal about a centimeter per month, Telford said.

It could be years before Telford regains feeling and ability in his arm. Daily tasks, like putting on a T-shirt, are far more difficult than they used to be, but Telford doesn’t seem phased by the extra work.

“My arm being the way it is … I don’t let it bug me,” Telford said.

Without his friends’ help and their medical training, Telford could have died in Mexico, Ovalle said.

“That wound he had was completely a mortal wound,” Ovalle said.

As lifeguards, Brett and Danny are trained as first responders — the American Red Cross’ highest level of medical training, said Newport Beach Lifeguard Officer Mike Halphide. He said he’s not at all surprised that the boys took charge and did the right thing.

“They’re just so used to acting as a group and just doing whatever needs to be done; they didn’t second guess themselves,” Halphide said.

At a dinner at the Cottam family’s Costa Mesa home Thursday, Telford’s parents thanked everyone who helped get their son safely home.

“These boys right here saved his life — there’s no doubt about it,” Telford Cottam Sr. said, gesturing to Jonsen and Brett, who were seated next to his son on a couch inside the family living room. To the four boys who have grown up together since pre-school and kindergarten, the accident and subsequent attention has been overwhelming.

“I pray every day for my life, and it’s been a life-altering experience,” Telford Cottam Jr. said.

After the accident, Telford got a tattoo on his left bicep that reads “SEMPER AMICITIA” — “forever friendship” in Latin. As the four boys get ready to experience their first year at college, Telford said the tattoo stands as a permanent mark of their friendship.

Before the accident, Telford was accepted on a water polo scholarship to Pepperdine University. At the end of August, he’ll head off to school, but his role on the team will be different from what he planned. But as soon as he can, he wants to start training so he can play again.

With all the surgeries hopefully behind them, Monica Cottam said she isn’t worried about her son leaving home.

“I’m the most thrilled he has something to look forward to,” she said.