Mother races to keep paralyzed son alive after 16 HOUR power outage

An Arizona mother faced a terrifying close call when the power went out in her city and left the medical equipment that keeps her paralyzed son alive not functioning.

Karen Glaser’s 27-year-old son, David, has been paralyzed for the past six years after a devastating motorcycle accident nearly killed him. 

On May 9, 2020, David was riding alone on a 165-foot-tall overpᴀss when he launched over the railing and plunged to the ground. 

He broke nearly every bone in his body, but doctors saved his life through a series of emergency surgeries, according to a GoFundMe to help cover the overwhelming medical expenses ᴀssociated with his treatment. 

Still, the horrific accident left David needing medical equipment to survive that requires electricity to function. 

On Saturday around 2.30pm, that equipment stopped working due to a widespread power outage in Coolidge, a city just south of Phoenix. 

More than 4,000 customers in the city of about 20,000 people were left without electricity for 16 hours, while temperatures climbed past 110F in the area that weekend.

For Karen, each pᴀssing minute and hour was particularly grueling, as she watched her son’s medical bed deflate and the machines that regulate his body temperature go dark. 

David Glaser, 27, has been paralyzed since a 2020 motorcycle crash. His mother, Karen Glaser, cares for him and he requires medical equipment to survive. The mom and son are pictured 

On Saturday, there was a power outage that caused David’s medical equipment, some of which regulates his body temperature, to fail. His mom covered him with wet towels to keep him cool

Karen said the temperature in her house reached 100F, as temperatures in the Coolidge area climbed past 110F over the weekend. She battled to keep her son stable

‘The first thing is what am I going to do with David?’ the mother told AZFamily. ‘His bed was off. None of the backup systems came on. So, I lost everything right away – the pulse oximeter, his oxygen levels.’

Karen said that temperatures in her home soon reached 100F, and she had to place wet rags across David’s body to keep him cool. She also manually suctioned saliva from his mouth to keep him from choking. 

The Coolidge Unified School District responded to the power outage by distributing ice and opening a cooling center, but Karen could not move her son because of all his equipment, and she could not leave his side. 

‘I was a sitting duck here, and I had no way out,’ Karen said. ‘When they were giving out ice, I couldn’t get there.’

The mother said she started sending messages for help, but there was no cell service, and then her phone died. 

With the power out, she could not recharge the device, which left her without the option to call 911 if her son’s condition deteriorated into an emergency. 

Before her phone died, she had called the city because her home is on an emergency list and is therefore prioritized to have power restored. 

During the first call, she had been ᴀssured that the power would return by 5pm, about two and a half hours after the blackout began.

Karen was unable to move David to a cooling center or leave his side to pick up ice. ‘I was a sitting duck here, and I had no way out,’ she said

David is pictured on his motorcycle before the crash when he plunged 165 feet off an overpᴀss and broke nearly every bone in his body

David’s mother was terrified by the close call after the power was restored Sunday morning. He is pictured before the crash

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But then 5.30 rolled around, and Karen still had no electricity. She called again, ‘and they just kept moving the time. They moved the time like four times,’ she recounted to AZFamily. 

Power was finally restored on Sunday morning, but for Karen, the previous 16 hours had been a grueling battle to keep her son stable amidst total uncertainty and sweltering heat.

‘You have no idea how scary that is,’ the mother said, her voice cracking with emotion. ‘I can’t have this happen again,’ she added as a tear rolled down her cheek.

Officials with the Western Area Power Administration, the government agency responsible for electricity in Coolidge, said the power outage was likely caused by a lightning strike during a storm on Saturday afternoon. 

Since David’s devastating accident in 2020, his mother has never given up hope that he might recover, updating his GoFundMe more than 200 times and maintaining a Facebook page covering his progress.