Draper neighborhood gets life-saving medicine to woman trapped in storm

DRAPER, Utah — This week’s historic snow left much of Utah digging out and in one Draper neighborhood, it meant doing whatever it took to help a woman who was stuck at her home when the storm was hitting at its hardest.

All it takes is one look. That was enough for Janée Gillette.

“It is beautiful. I mean, look at this,” she said while looking at Lone Peak and Mount Timpanogos. “I am sure everybody who lives here, lives here because of the mountains.”

Those views got her to move to Draper’s SunCrest neighborhood.

Same for her neighbor Sheryl Helt.

“We got moose walking through here. It is beautiful,” Helt said.

However, after the big snow storm this week, they both realized it is the people and community who keep them here.

“That’s the first thing I thought of when we were going through this,” Helt said. “I mean, it just was so heart-warming.”

Helt knew something was wrong earlier this week.

She wasn’t feeling well, and her family couldn’t figure out what it was.

“That is when my daughter took my blood sugar and it was almost 500,” Helt said.

That number is dangerously high.

They called an emergency room, they were told to come in, but it was when the snowstorm was hitting hard earlier this week.

It was really coming down in their neighborhood because SunCrest is at about 6,000 feet in elevation.

Snowplows hadn’t made their way yet and the roads were buried in snow and getting worse every minute.

“We tried and we couldn’t go anywhere. It was four feet deep everywhere,” Helt said. “It was scary when we got stuck on the road and something just came to me to just put a text out there.”

Gillette got that text.

Since she is a physician assistant and saw her neighbor getting sicker, she quickly went into work mode.

She posted a message on one of their neighborhood Facebook pages, made some calls, and sent a few texts.

“I was recognized that this was a medical emergency, so I sent messages out there asking does anybody have insulin? It was becoming more and more a medical emergency,” Gillette said.

Helt hadn’t been diagnosed with diabetes so she did not have insulin.

However, Gillette just knew.

They called the Draper Fire Department, but because of the conditions of the roads, the crew couldn’t quickly make it to her home.

A snowplow got stuck down the mountain trying to get up.

Finally, someone in the neighborhood responded to her message saying they had some insulin but needed a snowmobile to get to her.

Another neighbor said they had a snowmobile and they all worked together to help.

“Everybody was in on it. It was wonderful,” Helt said.

She is back to normal now, though her doctor diagnosed her with diabetes the next day during a visit.

Helt said it was a close call but now knows better than ever, even though the views are great, the people in her neighborhood are even better.