Courtney Gale's recovery continues
There are a whole lot of good people who have come together to try and help Sgt. Courtney Gale's recovery from that brutal attack last week at the Alps Bridge Krogers grocery store. The nurse deserves a heroes congratulations for her brave role in immediately providing life saving first aid at the scene. I wish our officers, hell all officers, were paid and insured well enough where any attack like this would be covered and no fund raisers were needed. I also pray for Courtney Gale's family and loved ones in their time of need, as well as the family of the culprit in this heinous attack. It is a shame that the Judge could not have locked this loser away or given him the treatment he so obviously needs. There are many people who deserve a THANK YOU all that they have done.
I could not possibly thank everyone involved but the fine folks at the A/CC Police Department have shown the utmost professionalism and courtesy to their injured comrade in her time of need. I do not know Sgt. Gale well. I knew her through serving on the Bishop Town Council briefly and liked everything about her. The following is a long and extremely well written email done by David Griffeth I copied from a google group dedicated to her recovery. Please donate blood or money if you can:
3. Send some money to her fund. Courtney is going to have diminished income and extensive expenses as a result of the attack. If we all step up, we can eliminate her financial burden completely. I don't want Courtney or her family to worry about finances -- I want them to focus all of their efforts on Courtney's physical and mental recovery. Few people get rich in the business of law enforcement, and Courtney is with the majority. She is a woman of limited financial resources. Collectively as her law enforcement brethren we can make a huge difference for her well being. I hope that you will rally behind her. She would never ask for the help, but I will. Every one of us should give to her.
I would like to see more money than she will ever need arrive in the mail at SunTrust, the bank that has a special fund established for her. In the unlikely event that she gets more than she needs, I'm certain of Courtney's impeccable character -- she will turn any excess funds over to another brother or sister in blue that needs the help.
I could not possibly thank everyone involved but the fine folks at the A/CC Police Department have shown the utmost professionalism and courtesy to their injured comrade in her time of need. I do not know Sgt. Gale well. I knew her through serving on the Bishop Town Council briefly and liked everything about her. The following is a long and extremely well written email done by David Griffeth I copied from a google group dedicated to her recovery. Please donate blood or money if you can:
December 14, 2007 2:12 AM
Friends and colleagues,
As I sit here tonight typing this email, a friend that is very dear and close to me is lying in a hospital intensive care unit fighting with all of her might to survive a brutal attack, and I cannot sleep. Some of you have already heard her story, but many of you haven't. I can't keep up with everyone that I've talked with in the past 24 hours. Some of you I don't know very well, and I'm not sure how you ended up in my address book other than we must have had some correspondence in the past. I've tried to filter this email so it goes to fellow law enforcement and my close friends only, but it's okay if you don't fall into either category. The story that follows is about a hero's need.
Sgt. Courtney Gale, an Athens-Clarke County robbery homicide sergeant that I work very closely with, was working an extra duty job at a local supermarket when she encountered a man with a knife. On Tuesday December 11th at about 9:30 in the evening, that man stabbed Courtney repeatedly with that large "butcher like" knife - the blade was shoved into her body ten times. I know Courtney well - I imagine that everyone in the store was trying to get away from the man with the knife while Courtney was running towards him.
Courtney lost a massive amount of blood in the attack. A nurse who saw the scene unfold estimated that Courtney lost 2 to 3 liters of blood as she lay on the floor bleeding to death. The average human body contains only 2.7 to 3 litres, and Courtney is small -- that estimate may be a little high. But that nurse was certainly in a better position to estimate than me.
Like I said, it was a very brutal attack. Some of the wounds punctured Courtney for the entire length of the blade. Courtney suffered substantial injuries to her left leg, right arm, back and shoulder.
Courtney didn't have an opportunity to use her radio to call for help. As she fought for her life, all she could do was push the panic button on her radio.
Some brave people in the grocery store went to Courtney's aid, fought the attacker off, and chased him until responding police officers could catch up to him. They chased him across a busy roadway with five lanes of traffic, behind a shopping center, and into a dimly lit parking lot.
While this chase was underway, that nurse that I mentioned earlier took charge of tending to Courtney's wounds. The nurse used a customer's belt to put a tourniquet on Courtney's severed femoral artery. A severed femoral artery can kill in mere minutes. The nurse directed customers to retrieve supplies off the store shelves to use in the heat of the moment. She slowed the flow of blood down enough to keep Courtney alive.
You can imagine the chaotic scene that was unfolding. While the nurse was trying to hold Courtney's life together with paper towels, a belt and the other implements she had at hand, every police officer in the jurisdiction was racing into the area not really knowing what had happened. They knew little more than a fellow officer was down.
Observant responding officers saw silhouettes running through a dark parking lot. The silhouettes were those of some supermarket customers chasing the suspect. In an incredible display of professionalism, three Athens-Clarke County patrol officers, all of them thinking that Courtney might be dying at the hands of the suspect they saw before them, used the minimum force necessary to take the suspect into custody. The human condition in me wishes they had killed him, but I'm very proud of the professionalism those officers displayed. They controlled their emotions and did the job they are sworn to do. That's exactly the way Courtney would have wanted it done.
I talked to that heroic nurse in a lengthy conversation tonight. She said that when she bent down to assess Courtney's condition, her eyes were open, glazed over, and she didn't look conscious. Courtney had her radio up to her mouth and she uttered one word that the nurse could barely make out, "ambulance." She didn't move or say anything else that made the nurse think she was conscious until a fellow police officer bent down in a recognizable blue uniform a few minutes later. Courtney articulated one word perfectly, "muscular." That's all she had left in her, and she was trying to describe her attacker. In her mind she may have said a complete sentence, but all that came out was "muscular."
A pair of paramedics was close by when the call went out that a police officer was down. The two paramedics raced to the supermarket and did a "snatch and run" -- they quickly delivered Courtney to a hospital that was close by, St. Mary's. An awesome emergency room staff was ready for her arrival.
To everyone that reacted on Courtney's behalf, you are my heroes!
Those of us that heard about the incident raced to the hospital. We may have broken a few traffic laws in our haste to get to Courtney's side -- I'm sorry Chief Lumpkin, I felt guilty when I did it, but I couldn't help myself. There wasn't anything we could do but stand outside the emergency room entrance by the ambulance and pray. Hospital staff were congregating at the windows of the hospital tower watching us in bewilderment. There must have been about a hundred of us holding hands in a circle praying together. It was a terrible thing to experience, but it must have been an awesome sight to behold and I'm sure God was listening.
Courtney's surgeon gained control of her vascular system over the course of 3 tenuous surgical sessions. Her blood pressure, heart rate, respiration, and circulation stabilized over the course of the next 24 hours.
Tonight, she is critical but, by the account of every medical professional I've talked to, stable.
Courtney still has some surgery ahead of her. The surgeons will have to open her up again and clean up some of her wounds, but the initial hurdle of keeping her alive was overcome with a lot of heroism, skill, and miraculous intervention.
You don't have to be a medical professional to know what the recovery risks are. Her attendants say that if she continues along a path of improvement, she is going to keep all of her limbs, but the doctors say that she may have suffered brain damage as a result of the trauma.
Courtney is a strong young woman with a lot of fight in her. Everyone that spends any amount of time with Courtney quickly realizes that she rarely succumbs to other people's predictions for her -- she almost always exceeds the expected. She's taken on this attack in the same "Courtney style" that we all respect and love her for. The RN sitting by her side last night said, "I've never seen anything like it. I'm monitoring the circulation and temperature of her injured leg, and that leg might be doing better than the uninjured one -- it's like she's trying to show off."
Courtney has a long recovery ahead of her, but today I'm confident she is going to survive and recover. Despite the confident attitude I displayed, I wasn't so sure Tuesday night.
She has a tremendous physical battle to fight. And she's got a tremendous mental battle ahead of her. It's going to be a LONG, LONG process.
Everyone that I've talked to has asked, "What can I do?" There are three things you can do for Courtney:
1. Pray for her.
2. Put together some substantial words of encouragement. The medical staff says Courtney is going to be in a drug induced coma for a while. She won't be able to take any calls, have any visitors, watch tv or read. She cannot receive flowers in ICU. She can hear, and she seems to respond to familiar voices. Her mom asked that we put words of encouragement in writing so that she can read them to her. Email me your words and I'll see that they are placed in her mom's hands.
Courtney lost a massive amount of blood in the attack. A nurse who saw the scene unfold estimated that Courtney lost 2 to 3 liters of blood as she lay on the floor bleeding to death. The average human body contains only 2.7 to 3 litres, and Courtney is small -- that estimate may be a little high. But that nurse was certainly in a better position to estimate than me.
Like I said, it was a very brutal attack. Some of the wounds punctured Courtney for the entire length of the blade. Courtney suffered substantial injuries to her left leg, right arm, back and shoulder.
Courtney didn't have an opportunity to use her radio to call for help. As she fought for her life, all she could do was push the panic button on her radio.
Some brave people in the grocery store went to Courtney's aid, fought the attacker off, and chased him until responding police officers could catch up to him. They chased him across a busy roadway with five lanes of traffic, behind a shopping center, and into a dimly lit parking lot.
While this chase was underway, that nurse that I mentioned earlier took charge of tending to Courtney's wounds. The nurse used a customer's belt to put a tourniquet on Courtney's severed femoral artery. A severed femoral artery can kill in mere minutes. The nurse directed customers to retrieve supplies off the store shelves to use in the heat of the moment. She slowed the flow of blood down enough to keep Courtney alive.
You can imagine the chaotic scene that was unfolding. While the nurse was trying to hold Courtney's life together with paper towels, a belt and the other implements she had at hand, every police officer in the jurisdiction was racing into the area not really knowing what had happened. They knew little more than a fellow officer was down.
Observant responding officers saw silhouettes running through a dark parking lot. The silhouettes were those of some supermarket customers chasing the suspect. In an incredible display of professionalism, three Athens-Clarke County patrol officers, all of them thinking that Courtney might be dying at the hands of the suspect they saw before them, used the minimum force necessary to take the suspect into custody. The human condition in me wishes they had killed him, but I'm very proud of the professionalism those officers displayed. They controlled their emotions and did the job they are sworn to do. That's exactly the way Courtney would have wanted it done.
I talked to that heroic nurse in a lengthy conversation tonight. She said that when she bent down to assess Courtney's condition, her eyes were open, glazed over, and she didn't look conscious. Courtney had her radio up to her mouth and she uttered one word that the nurse could barely make out, "ambulance." She didn't move or say anything else that made the nurse think she was conscious until a fellow police officer bent down in a recognizable blue uniform a few minutes later. Courtney articulated one word perfectly, "muscular." That's all she had left in her, and she was trying to describe her attacker. In her mind she may have said a complete sentence, but all that came out was "muscular."
A pair of paramedics was close by when the call went out that a police officer was down. The two paramedics raced to the supermarket and did a "snatch and run" -- they quickly delivered Courtney to a hospital that was close by, St. Mary's. An awesome emergency room staff was ready for her arrival.
To everyone that reacted on Courtney's behalf, you are my heroes!
Those of us that heard about the incident raced to the hospital. We may have broken a few traffic laws in our haste to get to Courtney's side -- I'm sorry Chief Lumpkin, I felt guilty when I did it, but I couldn't help myself. There wasn't anything we could do but stand outside the emergency room entrance by the ambulance and pray. Hospital staff were congregating at the windows of the hospital tower watching us in bewilderment. There must have been about a hundred of us holding hands in a circle praying together. It was a terrible thing to experience, but it must have been an awesome sight to behold and I'm sure God was listening.
Courtney's surgeon gained control of her vascular system over the course of 3 tenuous surgical sessions. Her blood pressure, heart rate, respiration, and circulation stabilized over the course of the next 24 hours.
Tonight, she is critical but, by the account of every medical professional I've talked to, stable.
Courtney still has some surgery ahead of her. The surgeons will have to open her up again and clean up some of her wounds, but the initial hurdle of keeping her alive was overcome with a lot of heroism, skill, and miraculous intervention.
You don't have to be a medical professional to know what the recovery risks are. Her attendants say that if she continues along a path of improvement, she is going to keep all of her limbs, but the doctors say that she may have suffered brain damage as a result of the trauma.
Courtney is a strong young woman with a lot of fight in her. Everyone that spends any amount of time with Courtney quickly realizes that she rarely succumbs to other people's predictions for her -- she almost always exceeds the expected. She's taken on this attack in the same "Courtney style" that we all respect and love her for. The RN sitting by her side last night said, "I've never seen anything like it. I'm monitoring the circulation and temperature of her injured leg, and that leg might be doing better than the uninjured one -- it's like she's trying to show off."
Courtney has a long recovery ahead of her, but today I'm confident she is going to survive and recover. Despite the confident attitude I displayed, I wasn't so sure Tuesday night.
She has a tremendous physical battle to fight. And she's got a tremendous mental battle ahead of her. It's going to be a LONG, LONG process.
Everyone that I've talked to has asked, "What can I do?" There are three things you can do for Courtney:
1. Pray for her.
2. Put together some substantial words of encouragement. The medical staff says Courtney is going to be in a drug induced coma for a while. She won't be able to take any calls, have any visitors, watch tv or read. She cannot receive flowers in ICU. She can hear, and she seems to respond to familiar voices. Her mom asked that we put words of encouragement in writing so that she can read them to her. Email me your words and I'll see that they are placed in her mom's hands.
I would like to see more money than she will ever need arrive in the mail at SunTrust, the bank that has a special fund established for her. In the unlikely event that she gets more than she needs, I'm certain of Courtney's impeccable character -- she will turn any excess funds over to another brother or sister in blue that needs the help.
In this season of giving, write a check out for Courtney. And I'm not asking for a little check -- when you are trying to decide how much to send, it's not enough until it causes you to wince a little bit. I know it's a tough time of year to think of giving, but do the right thing and give a little back to a person that has given so selflessly of herself to help protect others. I'm going to make my check out right now. My household will put a little less under the Christmas tree this year, but I'll be blessed for my benevolence and you will be blessed for yours.
Donations can be made to "The Courtney Gale Account Fund" at the SunTrust Bank, Attn: Heidi Spratlin, 1022 Prince Avenue, Athens, GA 30606.
Thank you for the tremendous outpouring of goodwill that I know you will show!
--
David Griffeth
Crime Analysis Unit
Athens-Clarke County Police Department
Athens, Georgia
United States
davidgriffeth@co.clarke.ga.us
Comments