McCulley continues to serve others through lifesaving endeavors and thoughtfulness

 Tennessee Tech University student Buchanan “Buck” Honeycutt pursued a nursing major because he wanted to help others. White County’s Abby McCulley is also pursuing her degree in a field where she can continue to help others: special education.

McCulley, who is a White County volunteer firefighter, and Honeycutt, a Sequatchie native, met during an incident that could have ended in tragedy.

But on Sept. 26, 2023, Honeycutt was the person needing emergency medical care, not the one administering it. He was bringing a prosthetic to a friend who had lost his leg, still proudly wearing his lab coat from a meeting earlier in the day, when tragedy struck.

Honeycutt was traveling down Highway 111 in his pickup truck when a car driving the wrong way came into his path. He swerved to miss the vehicle, but it wasn’t enough to avoid a head-on collision. Honeycutt’s car was demolished, and he was left with a broken leg and bruised ankle.

As fate would have it, Honeycutt was treated at the scene of the accident by McCulley.

“I was at home and was about to go to bed when the call came out for a wreck on Highway 111,” recalled McCulley. “They said anywhere between three and five cars. I went straight to the scene, and I saw Buck laying behind his truck.”

McCulley stood over Honeycutt with her flashlight, keeping him alert and making conversation, hoping to distract him from his severe pain, while waiting for another ambulance to arrive.

“She was very encouraging and kind,” remembers Honeycutt.

While Honeycutt went on to receive care for his injuries and is on the path to a full recovery, his treasured lab coat was a casualty of the wreck – cut apart by paramedics so they could assess his injuries.

Honeycutt said the lab coat was special to him, not only because it symbolized his progress in nursing school but because his parents had purchased it for him.

“The coat that was cut off me had a lot of significance. It was gifted to me by someone that really meant a lot to me: my parents,” said Honeycutt.

McCulley appreciated the significance of the coat, too.

“Watching it get cut off was a gut punch,” she said.

Moved by the passing of his grandfather and the many health care professionals who assisted him in the last months of his life, Honeycutt began studies at Tech’s Whitson-Hester School of Nursing, where he had recently participated in the white coat ceremony – a rite of passage marking students’ entrance into upper-level nursing courses.

The day after Honeycutt’s wreck, McCulley decided she would do something to help. She approached Julie Baker, associate provost at Tech, who was eager to validate her instinct to help a fellow student.

“It about chokes me up every time because I can see her face when she came to me,” said Baker. “She was so genuinely concerned about this other Tech student and him getting better and having everything he needed to get back on campus and get back in his classes.”

While McCulley was simply seeking Baker’s help in finding where to purchase the replacement coat, Baker did her one better: she and Lisa Zagumny, Dean of the College of Education, split the cost of the coat and ordered it for Abby to present to Buck.

“I was not expecting her to go and buy that whatsoever,” said McCulley. “I was just looking for a contact – someone to email. For her to recognize what I was trying to do and just take it upon herself to help me help someone else meant so much.”

For his part, Honeycutt was eager to meet his good Samaritan – this time without being in a state of trauma.

“Abby said she knew how hard I had worked for that coat and wanted to get me another one,” said Honeycutt. “It was very nice.”

For McCulley, the experience left her with a new friend and a deeper appreciation for the close-knit feeling of Tech’s campus.

“I would definitely say that I’ve made a new friend that I probably never would have made if not for these crazy circumstances,” said McCulley. “It shows how, even though we are a big campus, we really do care for each other. We have so many students, but Tech still has that family feel to it … we help each other in any way that we can.”