Lost and confused, Margaret Schottstaedt was in dire straits. A brain bleed, her invisible assailant, drove the Gladewater resident into the heat and the bramble July 1.
Fortunately, there were dedicated Gladewater Police personnel on-hand to triangulate the wandering woman’s whereabouts.
Margaret Schottstaedt (right) thanks Gladewater PD Communications Supervisor Kristy Duncan who, along with Officer Elizabeth Chacon and Cpl. Kenan Laza (right), worked together to locate the woman when she was lost and disoriented near Glade Creek while suffering a brain bleed July 1.
On Thursday, local officials honored the life-saving trio who brought Schottstaedt back from the brink: Officer Elizabeth Chacon, Corporal Kenan Laza and Communications Supervisor Kristy Duncan.
“It’s in those uncertain times that our citizens know there is someone to rescue them,” Brandy Flanagan said.
Emergency personnel were first alerted to Schottstaedt’s plight about 7:45 p.m. that Tuesday night when friends arrived at GPD to report her missing. According to Gladewater Police Chief Kyl Ready, they’d last heard from Schottstaedt in a confused phone call.
“She was somewhere on Commerce Street and had become stuck on a dirt road,” Ready reported. “Despite their efforts to locate her, they were unsuccessful.”
Chacon and Laza went east and west on Commerce. Duncan soon pointed Chacon toward Pouncy Street, following up on a recent report of a stuck car.
The officer soon spotted Schottstaedt’s vehicle, abandoned.
“She began searching the area on foot and ultimately found Mrs. Schottstaedt approximately 200 yards away near Glade Creek,” Ready told council members July 17, “lying on the ground, disoriented and distressed.”
Margaret Schottstaedt GPD Officer Elizabeth Chacon alongside Police Chief Kyle Ready.
Chacon and Laza quickly ushered the victim from the woods and into the arms of Gladewater Fire Department personnel and a Christus EMS crew standing by for medical aid.
Schottstaedt was transported to an area hospital and rushed into emergency surgery for the brain bleed. Within a week, she had recovered enough to send a letter of thanks to GPD.
“I can walk, talk, feed and dress myself, and even concentrate now,” she wrote, “but I know that I could have died that night if it were not for your team.”
Alongside GPD Lt. Michael Baggett and Mayor Brandy Flanagan, Ready presented his employees with the Life Saving Award – with Schottstaedt standing by with a broad smile and grateful embrace for each of her rescuers.
“Thanks to quick thinking, professionalism and compassion demonstrated by our personnel,” Ready said, “a life was saved.”
(From right) Gladewater Police Department Lt. Michael Baggett, Chief Kyle Ready and survivor Margaret Schottstaedt present Cpl. Kenan Laza, Communications Supervisor Kristy Duncan and Officer Elizabeth Chacon with the Life Saving Award July 17 alongside Gladewater Mayor Brandy Flanagan. The life savers triangulated Schottstaedt’s location July 1, rescuing the woman from the woods and getting her to medical treatment quickly, preventing a brain bleed from becoming fatal.