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PatientProfile Flying HighBy Bill Sanders Former patient overcomes trauma and tense situation, then earns a pilot’s license. Above and Following Page: Mal Zackery, a former spinal cord injury patient from Atlanta, underwent flight training through the Able Flight scholarship program in an adapted Sky Arrow 600 LSA with Matt Hansen of Hansen Air Group based at McCollum Field in Kennesaw, Ga. Some 38 hours of flying time later, Mal earned his pilot’s license – but not until after an emergency landing incident. Photos by Leita Cowart Somehow, Mal Zackery doesn’t seem shell-shocked at all. In the course of less than two years, the 29-year-old Atlantan was shot during a robbery and left paralyzed below the waist and was then involved in a harrowing emergency landing of a small airplane on a busy Georgia highway. The latter captured live national media coverage. That Mal lived through those two incidents is miracle enough. That he came out determined, happy and focused is more than a miracle. It’s a testament to his inner strength and the positive spirit that Shepherd Center staff reinforced in him every day he spent in rehabilitation at the hospital. “The care at Shepherd was the best,” Mal says. “They taught me how to do the things I’d need to do in my everyday life, and they kept it real upbeat. It’s a hard enough time as it is, and the last thing you’d need is for people to be all heavy and depressing. It wasn’t like that at all. They informed me of everything I needed to know, but they always kept it positive.” Mal came to Shepherd after being shot by a gunman in Montgomery, Ala., who robbed him and a fellow employee as they were making a bank deposit after hours. The gunman demanded the money and Mal’s car. “The next thing I know, I hear a gunshot and I collapse,” Mal recalls. “There was no blood really, but I went down and couldn’t move my legs, had no feeling, and I knew what had happened.” Mal spent about 10 days at Jackson Hospital in Montgomery. Almost from the beginning, the staff there encouraged him to transfer to Shepherd for rehabilitation. “They were very nice, showing me brochures about Shepherd,” he recalls. “When I got to Shepherd, it was the best.” Mal sustained a T-12 to L-1 incomplete spinal cord injury. But it was the worst kind of incomplete injury, Mal says, and he has regained very little movement in his legs. During his time as both an inpatient and outpatient, Shepherd’s therapeutic recreation therapists urged Mal to find an activity that 2 2 Spinal Column w w w. s h e p h e r d . o r g
interested him. They suggested basketball or swimming, but Mal just wasn’t interested. “I tried every angle possible to get him involved, and there wasn’t much that got through,” recalls Ashleigh Koontz, a therapeutic recreation specialist. “He was resistant to participating in much more than physical and occupational therapy because he was not someone who was open to the idea of participating in those things he once loved to do – now from a wheelchair.” Then someone told him about Able Flight, which provides flight training scholarships for people with disabilities. “It was the first time I saw a sparkle in his eye, and from what I can remember, the first time in a long time I saw that smile,” Ashleigh says. “It wasn’t long after hearing about Able Flight that Mal took the necessary steps and applied for the scholarship.” Mal wrote an essay for the scholarship application and was accepted into the program. Within a few weeks, he began flight training in an adapted Sky Arrow 600 LSA with Matt Hansen of Hansen Air Group based at McCollum Field in Kennesaw, Ga. Some 38 hours of flying time later, Mal earned his pilot’s license – but not until after the emergency landing incident. Here’s Mal’s recollection, in his words: “We had some hints that things weren’t perfect. The oil temperature was high as it had been on the previous flight, but no one thought that was a big deal. So I was flying it, and we’d climbed to about 2,500 feet when my instructor and I started smelling smoke. We looked around to see if there was something burning on the ground, but we saw smoke coming from the cockpit. “The instructor took over and shut off most of the electrical stuff. Then he had me try to turn the radio back on, and it wouldn’t work. He told me to try the master switch, and when I switched it, everything went off. We were flying with no engine, and there was nowhere to land except Cobb Parkway (a busy four-lane highway in suburban Atlanta). “We flew right over two trucks, whose drivers saw what was happening, and they stopped and blocked traffic behind them. And we landed there on the road. It was a perfect landing. It really wasn’t that scary because we train for that, and we knew the landing itself would be easy. It was just a matter of having a place to land.” Within a couple weeks later, Mal was back in the cockpit of the same airplane. “The first time was a bit tense,” he recalls. “But after that, all was good.” Mal’s instructor, Matt Hansen, praises both Able Flight and Mal, who was the organization’s 12th scholarship student. “We’ve worked with Able Flight from the beginning because it’s something we feel strongly about,” Matt says. “Mal’s done great. He’s right where he ought to be in his flying schedule.” “It was the first time I saw a sparkle in his eye, and from what I can remember, the first time in a long time I saw that smile. It wasn’t long after hearing about Able Flight that Mal took the necessary steps and applied for the scholarship.” — Ashleigh Koontz, Shepherd Center recreation therapist Fall 2009 2 3
Page 1 and 2: As Seen on TV ShepherdTV.org offers
Page 3 and 4: Fall2009Contents Photo by Leita Cow
Page 5 and 6: Newly Integrated Sip-and-Puff Syste
Page 7 and 8: HEALING the brain Shepherd Center b
Page 9 and 10: ain injury statistics Shepherd Cent
Page 11 and 12: what you had underneath the jacket.
Page 13 and 14: + CoverStorySidebar Praise on Peach
Page 15 and 16: Photo by Owen Riley Photo by Leita
Page 17 and 18: OutreachFeature Building Profession
Page 19 and 20: Un- Adapting to life after a spinal
Page 21 and 22: ShepherdTVFeature Shepherd asked KP
Page 23 and 24: ManagedCareCorner Why Shepherd By C
Page 25: Why Shepherd Evidence ICU Statistic
Page 29 and 30: Q&A Q+A with John Lin, M.D., Associ
Page 31 and 32: nursing program at Georgia Perimete
Page 33 and 34: Partners for Passengers Shepherd’
Page 35 and 36: As examples, Cooper cites money for
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Page 39 and 40: Junior Committee Preparing for a Me
Page 41 and 42: Alyson Roth: Advocate and Surfing C
Page 43 and 44: LovingTributes Memorials Deceased f
Page 45 and 46: Anita M. Smith Mrs. Frank C. Bowen,

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