Published: November 12, 2008 09:21 pm         

Two Wabash Valley teens remain hospitalized after recent crash

Mom credits unknown nurse for saving teen's life

TERRE HAUTE — Two Wabash Valley teens remained hospitalized after an accident last week, and one mother sends her thanks to an anonymous nurse she said saved her son’s life.

Patty Gallik, mother of Michael, credited a nurse on her way home from work as being the reason her son is still alive.

Gallik, 19, was a passenger in the vehicle of Nicole Burton, 20, driving west on Poplar Street about 3:33 p.m. last Thursday when an eastbound vehicle driven by Kyle Pendergast, 16, reportedly lost control and began sliding straight at them.

Burton told police she applied her brakes and tried to stop, but was unable to avoid a collision.

The collision trapped Pendergast in the 1968 Camaro and members of the Terre Haute Fire Department had to extricate him before he was rushed to Union and then Methodist Hospital. He was listed fair condition Wednesday, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Burton and Gallik were taken to Terre Haute Regional Hospital, where she was treated for a broken ankle, said Patty, who lives in Pennsylvania.

And Gallik, who was attending Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology last year, told hospital personnel about the “slight pain” in his abdomen only because a woman who voluntarily stopped at the scene instructed him to do so, she said.

“I feel if it wasn’t for her they might have looked over it,” she said, noting her son wouldn’t have complained about the pain on his own, not realizing that his ruptured spleen was bleeding internally and he would eventually require six units of blood.

But the nurse on her way home from work noted his being pale, and when feeling around the slightly pained area in his abdomen told him he might have internal bleeding.

A CAT scan revealed just that and he was admitted for surgery to remove the spleen, she said.

“I feel she saved his life in a lot of ways,” she said.

Michael Gallik remained in Regional Hospital on Tuesday, she said.

“He’s just weak. He lost a lot of blood. They had to give him six units,” she said, adding that to the nurse whose name her son doesn’t remember, “she needs to know she had a big part in this …You only have so many heroes in this world.”

Brian Boyce can be reached at 812-231-4253 or brian.boyce@tribstar.com.