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Jessica Glaspie: The Long Shot
Jessica
Glaspie never felt the bullet pierce her abdomen.
She’s still not certain how the pistol went off. But one thing
the 13-year-old Madras girl is sure of is that someone was
watching over her on Oct. 6, 2002.
While hunting with a large family group, Jessica accidentally triggered a small pistol, shooting herself in the abdomen. The effect was instant, and Jessica collapsed. Her father, Darrell, heard Jessica’s cousin scream and came running. As they loaded Jessica into the family’s truck, the family summoned the LaPine Fire District crew to meet them on the road.
In the back of the LaPine ambulance, Jessica stopped breathing and went into cardiac arrest. The crew brought her back and sped her on her way to the landing zone, where the Air Life team was prepared to fly Jessica to Bend.
“She needed to get into surgery fast,” recalls flight nurse Kathy Dyck. And that’s exactly what happened. Jessica endured hours of surgeries and months of rehab, but she finally made a full recovery—something doctors attribute largely to her speedy emergency transport.
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