He canoed and waded through miles of Texas flooding to give an injured teen surgery

When Dr. Stephen Kimmel heard about a teenager who needed surgery, he rushed to help.

It didn’t matter that rising floodwaters from Hurricane Harvey stood in the way — or that his own house in the Houston metropolitan area was beginning to flood, according to Houston Public Media.

In the middle of the night Saturday, Kimmel trekked toward Clear Lake Regional Medical Center, rushing to give 16-year-old Jacob Terrazas surgery for an injury that, if left untreated, could cause permanent damage, according to ABC7.

At first, Kimmel rushed in his car, but rising waters forced the doctor to go back home. However, he soon received help from two volunteer firemen in a personal truck, according to Houston Public Media.

The three drove down I-45 until the water became too high for the vehicle to pass — and then unloaded a canoe from the back of the truck.

Shrouded in the dark of night, they paddled toward the hospital, braving the heavy currents, according to ABC7. When the water calmed down, Kimmel made his way through waist-deep floodwaters for just under a mile.

As Kimmel fought through those tough conditions to reach the hospital, staff at Clear Lake Regional Medical Center prepared Terrazas for surgery for his painful testicular torsion.

The floodwaters impeded Terrazas’ trip to the hospital as well — as he writhed in pain, the floodwaters made I-45 impassable, forcing his family to wait on the road until an ambulance arrived to pick him up, according to Houston Public News.

“Jacob was in such pain and was shaking and hardly able to talk when we got here, but everyone (at the hospital) is so helpful,” said Yesenia Terrazas, the boy’s mother.

At last, Kimmel arrived. He was drenched head to toe, but he quickly shed his clothes, put on some scrubs and got to work.

The surgery, which took about an hour, was a success.

“Sometimes you have to do whatever it takes,” Kimmel said in a press release. “This young man’s life would have been changed for the worse forever if we hadn’t been able to perform surgery when we did. In the end, it all turned out very well.”

This story was originally published August 30, 2017 at 12:08 PM with the headline "He canoed and waded through miles of Texas flooding to give an injured teen surgery."