Potato gun maims pianist

Paul Dial attributes his training as an Eagle Scout in his youth for the calm and cool approach he exhibited following the potato gun explosion that severely injured his neighbour, Idaho State University student Derek Schaible, on Sunday afternoon. Dial said he was watching television when he heard the boom. “It was very loud. It shook the pictures on the wall.”

Running outside to the house next door, Dial heard a woman screaming and when he came upon Schaible and the woman, there was a pool of blood forming. When Schaible turned to face Dial he was covering his mutilated right hand with his left hand, saying, "What have I done, what have I done." Dial said that he also observed shrapnel wounds in Schaible's right leg and three fingers were missing, his little finger, ring finger and middle finger. He the woman to get a towel, a chair and to call the police.



She told Dial that she didn’t have a phone so Dial ran home and told his wife to call 911. Schaible was bleeding profusely and was beginning to go into shock. Dial said he wanted to keep him outside because the cold weather would stall the effects of shock. He held onto Schaible's arm and applied a tourniquet with his hands to stop the bleeding. “I told him to keep his arm above his shoulder, to keep it above his heart.”

Dial said that his training as an Eagle Scout taught him that “you just have to use your common sense. Determine what the situation is and then react.” Schaible was rushed by ambulance to Portneuf Medical Center, where he was listed in stable condition following surgery. Schaible is an Idaho State University student majoring in music performance. He was scheduled to play piano at the Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration at the nearby First United Methodist Church on Sunday night.