After a night of bar hopping in Iowa City, ISU student Brandon Koch and a friend interrupted a brawl in a half-darkened parking garage. Little did Koch know that seconds later his arm would be an “unstoppable fountain of blood,” he said. Koch, sophomore in construction engineering, and his friend Keelan Driscoll of Mason City were getting into Koch’s car in early August when Driscoll heard a girl screaming in the distance and saw a teen-age boy being attacked. “I had a chilling instinct to go and help them,” Koch said. Koch and Driscoll went to the teen-ager’s aid and found themselves confronted by the attackers. They went after Driscoll first, but he ran away when he heard the young girl scream about a knife. Koch never heard the girl’s scream. “It felt like I lost my hearing and the silence was never going to end,” he said. When Koch looked up, he saw two intense eyes moving straight toward him. He backpedaled until his body slammed against a truck. He rolled off the side of the tailgate and threw up his arms in defense. That’s when the bronze-colored knife struck his arm, and he fell to the ground. “It was a never-ending fall like in Alice in Wonderland, and I was so clueless as to what was happening,” Koch said. He didn’t feel any pain when the knife struck him, but he knew he was hurt from the sight of the blood. “I looked down and knew it was a matter of life or death,” he said. Iowa City police arrived at the scene shortly afterward and arrested Angel Garcia, 18, and his brother Adrian Garcia, 22, in the Old Capitol Parking Ramp. The brothers, of Fort Madison, were both charged with three counts of willful injury and joint criminal conduct. Angel Garcia was also charged with assaulting a police officer. Another man, Devlin Guzman, 17, of Fort Madison, was found later in the defendant’s car and was charged with carrying a concealed weapon. Not only was Koch stabbed, but so were Driscoll and Joseph Feddersen, the teen-age boy. Driscoll suffered from a punctured lung and Feddersen was stabbed in the side and arm. Since the incident, Koch has been going to physical therapy sessions once a week at Mary Greeley Medical Center, 111 Duff Ave. Koch said the knife cut through the tendons in his left arm, leaving him with no feeling in half of his left hand. “He hit a nerve so it causes a longer recovery time,” said Brian Licht, occupational therapist and certified hand specialist at Mary Greeley. To have feeling in his hand again, Koch must wait for the nerve in his arm to grow back. Licht said the nerve will grow about one centimeter a month. After four or five months, he will have partial feeling in his hand. Licht said it could be as long as a year before Koch’s hand is fully functional. “Before I got hurt, I took the motions of my hand for granted and now I have to work hard to get them back,” said Koch, who visits with Licht once a week. He also does home exercises to regain his strength. Marty Koch, Brandon Koch’s father, is a police officer in Williamsburg. He said he hates to see his son in pain, but he’s “very glad he helped to save that boy’s life.” Director of Public Safety Loras Jaeger said it’s important to help out ot hers who are in danger, but he said people should also be cautious. “There’s always a motivation to help others, but you should keep your own safety in mind,” he said. Jaeger suggests a person who is put into Koch’s situation should try to get law enforcement involved. If that is not possible, he said a person shouldn’t jump into a fight alone. Koch said he agrees, and he wouldn’t relive that night the same way, even though he saved someone’s life. “Down the road, my scar is going to be a constant reminder of a night I want to forget,” Koch said.