TOP STORY >>Guard Airman, son save 19-year-old

By Master Sgt. Bob Oldham
189th Airlift Wing Public Affairs

In a coma, 19-year-old Katie Gleason of Little Rock didn’t know Air National Guard Tech. Sgt. Sam Macheak or his son, Ross, a 42nd Composite Squadron Civil Air Patrol cadet major, before she slipped into an unresponsive state.

They all met Aug. 2, but she doesn’t recall it. They helped stabilize her until the ambulance and fire crews could arrive.
Young Katie was driving along Maumelle Boulevard on her way to meet a cosmetics client. It was about 6:20 p.m. as she attempted to make a left turn across two lanes of traffic. Unfortunately, she couldn’t see past a row of cars that were opposite of her that were also trying to make a left turn.

She waited patiently for an opening in the traffic. She thought she had one and pressed the accelerator with her foot. Today, she still doesn’t remember the truck that slammed into car at about 55 mph.

“It’s like playing Russian roulette” at that intersection, Katie’s mother, Kelly Gleason, said. To date, there have been more than a dozen vehicle accidents at that intersection. The Macheaks — Sam, Ross and family — were on their way out to eat in Maumelle. They were in heavy traffic when Sam saw the accident happen.

As the truck hit, he saw a perfect bubble erupt from the car as the glass in Katie’s car exploded in every direction from the collision. Sam pulled off the road and jumped out. Ross followed.

“[Katie] was semi-conscious for a moment,” Sam said. She was in good hands. Sam works in the information technology department at Baptist Health and has current life-saving skills in first aid, plus annual Air Force self-aid and buddy care training. Ross has received training from the Civil Air Patrol to search for downed aircraft. Aircraft often go down in remote locations, so searchers have to know how to treat a myriad of injuries.

“I jumped in the (driver’s side) back door,” Sam said. “Ross went in through what was left of the passenger-side door.”
The car was a crumpled mess.

“The [front] passenger’s seat just basically disappeared,” he said. “I don’t know where it went, either; under the car or into the engine.”

As traumatic as the crash was, Katie was fortunate. She was wearing her seatbelt, and she was wrapped in an airbag cocoon.
In 2003, 5,240 teens were killed in passenger-vehicle crashes, and 458,000 teens were injured, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration statistics.

Sixty-three percent of the fatally injured 16-to-20-year-old passenger vehicle occupants were unrestrained, compared to 55 percent for adults 21 or older.

In 2003, an estimated 2,488 lives were saved by air bags.

Katie was banged up, bruised and bloodied. She was having trouble breathing, and her car was starting to smoke.

While Sam and Ross stabilized her in the driver’s seat, someone unhooked the battery cables, causing the smoke to stop.

Sam kept her airway open while Ross ran a mental checklist of injuries: lacerations, possible broken bones, possible head and neck injuries, light pulse.

Within five minutes, emergency crews were on scene, working to remove her from her car.
Four excruciatingly long days later, Katie’s eyes opened.

She had suffered a tiny bleeding brain injury, lacerations and a fracture at L3 in her back.

She spent a month in the hospital, followed by weeks of physical therapy and occupational therapy.

She’s well on the road to recovery, thanks to a father and a son who chose to make a difference on Aug. 2.