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Man makes daring rescue

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By NATALIE SHEPHERD

nshepherd@wfla.com

Published: November 14, 2009

Michael Gay didn't think much of a small fire he saw when he was driving down 80 Foot Road near Bartow on Wednesday night.

"They usually burn trees down in that area," he said.

But for some reason, he turned around and stopped anyway. That's when he realized a car had smashed into the tree, and there was a woman trapped inside.

"She knew the car was on fire, she knew she couldn't get out, she knew she needed help, and she was just screaming the whole time for help," Gay said.

Gay said he saw the woman, 28-year-old Jodi Oakes, trying to remove her seatbelt, but she couldn't. Gay tried to pull her out the passenger side, but the door was jammed.

By the time he got back around to the driver's side window, Oakes' seatbelt had burned through, and he pulled her to safety.

Gay's hands are blistered, burned and wrapped in white bandages, but he says he didn't think about his own safety when he went to help Oakes.

"When she started screaming, everything else went blank. Somebody had to do something and nobody else was really there to do anything," he said.

Oakes' family is thankful Gay stopped to help.

"We're all very grateful for him, because if he wouldn't have pulled her out of the car, she would have died," said Julia Oakes, Jodi Oakes' 17-year-old sister. The whole family is by her side at Tampa General Hospital, where she's in the intensive care unit.

"Fifty percent of her body is burned all the way from her toes, up to here on her left side," Julia Oakes said, referencing her mid-chest. "They have her sedated, and they have a feeding tube, and they have a breathing tube. She's on a ventilator."

Julia Oakes said the family isn't sure what caused Jodi Oakes to crash. Investigators say she didn't stop at the stop sign at County Road 640 and 80 Foot Road.

This isn't her first brush with death this year. She has a pacemaker and defibrillator because she had a heart attack in January.

"She could have died twice," Julia Oakes said through tears. "Apparently it's not her time to go."

Jodi Oakes has two sons and a daughter, ages 8, 5 and 2. She works as certified nurses assistant at Lake Wales Medical Center. Her sister said she was on her way to Wachula after leaving work Wednesday night.

"She just passed out or fell asleep and never let off the gas," she said.

Julia Oakes called Gay on the phone to thank him for saving her sister's life.

"He would have done it for anybody and he is a very nice person," she said.

Gay said that's just how he was raised. "To me, it's just the way I was brought up; you know, you help people."

Natalie Shepherd can be reached at (813) 225-2703.

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