'An heroic act': Timnath baseball player possibly saves woman's life at Denver airport

Drake Jenkins was arriving at Denver International Airport on Oct. 2, ready to fly out to California and meet up with his parents to visit a family friend in San Luis Obispo.

It became a more harrowing yet heroic experience for the Timnath High School junior and Cubs baseball player.

In fact, Jenkins may have saved a woman's life that day.

Denver Health Paramedic Will Dunn said a woman in her 70s had pulled too far past the ticket taker while entering a DIA parking lot and put her car in reverse to grab the ticket.

Her foot slipped off the brake as she reached for it and fell out of the vehicle, pulling her underneath the moving car.

Jenkins was in line behind her and, according to Denver Health Paramedics, immediately jumped into action. He swerved his own vehicle (mostly) out of the way, hopped into her car, stopped it and helped pull her from underneath the vehicle.

"I didn't have time to think at all," Jenkins said. "I saw what was happening and then heard her scream. My instincts just took over from there."

The woman suffered serious bodily injury, including scrapes, bruises and broken bones. But it could have been so much worse, Dunn said.

"It's not over the top to say he likely saved this woman's life, especially at her age," Dunn said. "It was absolutely an heroic act."

Jenkins remained on scene for nearly an hour, describing what happened to responders that include police officers, firemen and paramedics.

During that time, Dunn talked to Jenkins, finding out the Windsor teenager goes to Timnath High School.

Days later, Dunn emailed Timnath administrators and staff like principal Jesse Morrill and baseball coach Alex Anaya to thank Jenkins for his "selfless" act, also nominating Jenkins for a Denver Health Paramedics award that recognizes civilian heroes.

He was inspired to do so because "Drake didn't strike me as the type who would even say anything, except maybe to his parents," Dunn said.

That's also how Anaya described Jenkins, as a "hard-working and humble" kid who wants to help others. Jenkins is a two-way standout for the Cubs, batting .383 with 31 RBIs while striking out 115 batters in 84 innings pitched during his first two seasons.

Jenkins did indeed mainly relay the story only to his parents at first. His car received minor scrapes from the woman's vehicle as it was moving in reverse.

"You're not going to believe this but ... ," Jenkins remembers telling his father over the phone right after the incident.

Amazingly, Jenkins still made his flight, too. DIA operators gave him a ride after parking and allowed him to go through restricted-access security before barely arriving at the gate in time.

While he's appreciated the thanks and gratitude for jumping into action, Jenkins certainly doesn't think of himself like a hero.

"I didn’t really process it for a while and was just shaking a lot. It was tough to see, and I was hoping that she was going to be OK.

"I did what you hope anybody would do when they see someone in trouble."

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: 'An heroic act': Timnath baseball player possibly saves woman's life at Denver airport