Fire District Honors Five Valley Heroes

Eva Montano looked in her rear-view mirror and knew something was wrong.

It was the morning of April 14 and she was stopped in her car on Harvard Road, waiting for a Burlington Northern Santa Fe train to pass.

In her rear-view mirror, Montano saw a car swerving out of control behind her. The car ran off the road into a field.

At first, the 29-year-old Otis Orchards woman thought it was a group of teenagers goofing off. But then she saw a person slumped over the steering wheel of the still-moving vehicle.

“Then I knew somebody was in trouble,” she said.

Montano jumped out of her own vehicle and chased the other car through the field. It ended up crashing into the railroad track berm, barely missing the passing train.

The driver, an older woman, had suffered a heart attack.

Montano and a friend, Liza Erickson, who happened to drive by, helped keep the woman alive by performing CPR.

Erickson, who had just completed a CPR class for her job at 24-Fitness, said she never thought she would have to use it.

Since then, she said, “I insist everyone take the class. You never know when you’re going to need it.”

Although the woman died later after being taken to Valley Hospital and Medical Center, Spokane Valley Fire District officials recognized Montano’s and Erickson’s bravery and swift actions during the emergency.

They, along with three other Valley residents were honored this week for their actions.

Fire Chief Pat Humphries praised them for their quick response in dire need.

Also commended were Dr. C. Harold Mielke, of Liberty Lake, his son-in-law, Jim van Loben Sels of Liberty Lake, and a friend, Tony Judge of Post Falls.

The three helped a 22-year-old man who had been seriously injured when the dump truck he was driving rolled backward.

The accident happened around 8:45 a.m. on May 24 near Mielke’s home in the 25000 block of East Mission Avenue.

Relatives say Eric Ackerman was driving a dump truck full of dirt up a steep hill. They believe the truck slipped out of gear and had no brakes so Ackerman jumped from the truck to save himself.

He hit his head and was lying unconscious when Mielke, on his way to work, saw him.

Mielke, associate dean of medical research at Washington State University in Spokane, said he believed Ackerman had brain damage because he had hit his forehead and was unconscious.

“What you do in those incidents is stabilize the neck,” Mielke said.

Mielke, van Loben Sels and Judge continued to keep the man stabilized until paramedics arrived.

Ackerman’s parents, Bernice and Larry Ackerman, who live on Spokane’s North Side, said their son is still in a coma at Deaconess Medical Center and has undergone two brain surgeries.

They said they were grateful to the men who came to their son’s rescue, especially the doctor who immediately knew how to respond.

“The doctor knew the signs of brain injury,” said Ackerman’s sister Brandi Seekins. “I wouldn’t have known.”