Man suffering chest pains drives truck into chiropractic clinic

A 45-year-old Enumclaw man suffering from chest pains drove his full-size, 4x4 Dodge pickup truck into the southwest corner of the Auburn Chiropractic Clinic at 1428 Auburn Way South about 11:30 a.m. Friday.

By Robert Whale • November 20, 2009 6:16 pm
The Auburn Chiropractic Clinic suffered damage on Friday morning after a man suffering a medical emergency drove his pickup truck into the southwest corner of the building on Auburn Way South.
The Auburn Chiropractic Clinic suffered damage on Friday morning after a man suffering a medical emergency drove his pickup truck into the southwest corner of the building on Auburn Way South.

An Enumclaw man suffering from a medical emergency lost consciousness and drove his full-size, 4×4 Dodge pickup truck into the southwest corner of the Auburn Chiropractic Clinic at 1428 Auburn Way South about 11:30 a.m. last Friday.

According to the Valley Regional Fire Authority, VRFA crews and King County Medic One Paramedics performed cardio-pulmonary resuscitation on 45-year-old Jeffrey Wiebenga. Paramedics transported him to Auburn Regional Medical Center in critical condition, where he later died. He was the sole occupant of the vehicle.

Clinic employees were evacuated after a portion of the exterior wall collapsed, according to the VRFA. No one in the building was hurt.

Chiropractor Vicki Gilthvedt, whose father, Harley Gilthvedt founded the clinic, described what happened.

“I was working on a patient at the time and heard a terrible explosion, so I went outside and saw that a truck had run into our building,” said Gilthvedt. “My father was in the x-ray room, but not at the end of it, and nobody was injured. Everybody is OK, just a bit shaken up. He’s hurt our x-ray room, but fortunately my brother does construction, and he came down with a structural engineer and they said we’ll be able to work tomorrow.

“…The man was apparently on the phone to his son and said he had had chest pain, so his son said, ‘Pull over, I’ll come get you.’ Then he kind of slumped in his vehicle. People stopped on Auburn Way to see if he was OK, and his foot hit the gas,” Gilthvedt said.

According to eyewitnesses, Wiebenga in the throes of his crisis stopped and started his vehicle several times on Auburn Way South before he went over the curb and hit the building.

“I heard a loud crash and a motor running and some people yelling that a car had gone through the building,” said Stephanie Bjorkman, an off-duty Washington State Patrol Trooper who had stopped by the clinic for treatment on her way home. “I got dressed really, really fast and came running out fast, so fast I didn’t have time to put my socks on. The guy wasn’t looking too good. I could hear that aid was almost here.”