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March 2008
Second chance after near-death experience
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Vino Wong/AJC
Kenneth Malcom grimaces during recent rehabilitation.
People sometimes ask Kenneth Malcom if he is scared to resume working with the electricity that almost killed him seven months ago.
They ask him if he saw white lights during his brush with death.
No, he says, to both counts.
The 56-year-old journeyman line technician for Walton EMC fell onto an underground transformer Aug. 10 while repairing electrical lines on Clower Street in Snellville. Electricity (how much is unclear) entered his chest and came out his back. He was not breathing and had no pulse when his co-workers removed him.
“When we pulled him out, he was dead as a door nail,” said Walton EMC crew member Frederick Muldrow, who — along with Tommy Ledford and Tommy McDaniel — worked with Malcom that day.
Through CPR (which Walton EMC mandates all employees learn and for which it offers company training), they were able to revive him just before an ambulance arrived to take him to Gwinnett Medical Center. The three were honored later by the Georgia EMC trade organization for their heroic efforts.
Since the accident, Malcom has worked diligently not merely to recover, but to make a complete comeback. Next week, he’ll find out if he’s there. He sees the doctor April 3 to learn if he can return to work.
Why Malcom fell is not known. Procedures were followed, safety equipment was worn, and Malcom has long paid attention to physical fitness, working out and running 6 miles daily to stay in shape. But it was a blistering hot day, and while Malcom said he had been drinking plenty of water, he and others surmise that he must have blacked out from the heat or tripped.
Such incidents are uncommon, said Greg Brooks, communications coordinator for Walton EMC. Earlier, the utility even went for a three-year stretch without any injury that resulted in lost work time.
That’s why Malcom isn’t scared to return. He had never been seriously injured before and knows that with the safety precautions, it is unlikely again.
(As for the lack of white lights, Malcom can only say that he remembers nothing. It was time lost, he said.)
It has been a long road for Malcom. His head required 30 stitches and part of his ear was cut off. His shoulder was cracked and needed surgery. He fractured his lower lumbar and received second- and third-degree burns.
But his determination and spirit were left strong.
“I’m blessed,” he told me last week. “I’m very blessed.”
I heard about Malcom from my husband, who met him at Atlanta Rehabilitation & Performance Center in Snellville, where Malcom goes for physical therapy three days a week. He works up a sweat with weights, a stationary bike and other equipment, all the time exchanging quips with the staff there.
“The hardest part is the stretches,” performed by therapists while he lies on a table, he confided.
My husband, who was nursing a knee injury, was moved by Malcom’s outlook, determination and the intensity of his workouts — even before he heard Malcolm’s story.
“He’s definitely got a lot of fight,” said David Biggee, physical therapist and part owner of Atlanta Rehabilitation. “He wants to be where he was before that day.” “A lot of people would be satisfied being at the point he’s at right now — once they get within 20 percent of what they were,” Biggee said. “ … He’s not satisfied not having full movement (of his shoulder and arm).
Malcom wants to return to Walton EMC, where he has worked for 24 years, until he retires. “I want to be healthy,” he said.
Originally from Monroe, Malcolm lives with his wife of 32 years, Linda, and his youngest son, Nick, on Everson Road near Snellville.
Linda, retired from a job with the state government, is a native of the area and part of the Everson family for which the road was named.
Nick, 25, recently graduated from Savannah State University, is looking for a job in social work and planning for graduate studies. An older son, Kelvin Deitrick Malcom, 28, is in the real estate and mortgage business in Hawaii.
Malcom’s survival of the accident in August is not the first time he feels he has been given a second chance at life. Four years ago, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and underwent treatment. Next year will bring the five-year mark of being cancer-free.
“My wife has told me, ‘You’ve … used two of your lives; you only have five left,’” Malcom said.
Since the accident, Malcom has not only resumed his fitness routine, “I’m more into exercising,” he said. “I run in the morning and ride my bike in the afternoon.” He recently won second place for his age group in the “Run the Reagan” 10K on Ronald Reagan Parkway.
He also finds himself being more positive (which I noticed as he complimented the men who saved his life, his wife for her care, co-workers who visited and called, the EMTs who took him to the hospital, the Gwinnett Medical Center staff, those who help him in rehabilitation, Walton EMC and others.)
“And I always thank the Lord, because he’s No. 1 to me,” he said.
“I do look at life differently. … The negative things in my life, I try to avoid them.”
“I’m too blessed to be stressed.”
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What’s your take on U.S. 78?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Few have a better view of U.S. 78 construction right now than Eunice Spence. Not only does her business, Spence Monument Co., sit beside the current work zone, her home does as well.
But Mrs. Spence, who moved to property fronting U.S. 78 on June 9, 1940, with her late husband Herbert, tries not to pay much attention to the goings on.
“People seem to think it would be hard to live on 78,” she said. “I don’t hardly notice it, I guess because I’ve lived here so long; I’m used to it.”
U.S. 78 was only two lanes when Mrs. Spence moved to the residence (just west of what is now the Stone Mountain Quick Trip), and it had been a paved road for only two years. Repeated road widening since then has brought the multi-lane highway to a cozy distance from her doorstep.
Mrs. Spence doesn’t have major complaints about the current work. It causes some inconvenience, but Georgia Department of Transportation employees and construction workers have been good about notifying her of changes and seeing to her needs, she said.
And she’s glad for anything that will take away the reversible lane system on the highway.
“This suicide lane should have never been put in,” she said.
Construction on the first phase of the $31 million project began about one month ago, as workers took out the reversible lane from East Park Place to Stone Drive and began tearing up the old road, making drainage improvements and creating new curbs and gutters.
The work left three westbound lanes and two eastbound lanes open, except at night, when eastbound traffic is funneled into one lane. (This week, workers started closing a westbound lane also to begin work on that side of the highway.)
The improvement project, which is being conducted in phases but will eventually extend to Ga. 124 in Snellville, will make the road three lanes on each side and provide a median, sidewalks and landscaping.
All construction work is being done between 7 p.m. and 5 a.m. to minimize problems for commuters. You can view an interactive map of the highway.
I visited the site one recent night, as backhoes, Bobcats and dump trucks performed under bright lights. Workers were busy moving dirt, breaking up pavement and building curb forms as a still heavy parade of cars made its way through orange and white striped barrels. Check out photos.
“Everyone knows there is no good time to work on roads in Gwinnett,” said Teri Pope, DOT communications officer for Northeast Georgia. By working at night and breaking the 6.6-mile project into four phases, officials are trying to lessen the negative impact.
That doesn’t mean there won’t be any, however.
“U.S. 78 really is the spine of south Gwinnett County,” said Pope, who — as a former resident of Snellville — knows. “You have to get on it to go just about anywhere.”
So, there are backups and delays as evening eastbound traffic merges into fewer lanes. Some motorists have started using I-20 east as an alternate route home. Others exit U.S. 78 at Hugh Howell Road and get onto Five Forks Trickum (by way of Lilburn-Stone Mountain Road and Old Stone Mountain Road) for the rest of their trip. A few drivers have begun to cut through the parking lot of the Sam’s Mart Shell station at U.S. 78 and East Park Place to get to Annistown Road.
“I think it’s dangerous because some customers are finishing filling up and then someone else comes in and cuts through very fast,” said Jacob Tadros who works the cash register from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. “Till now, nothing has happened, but I worry someone could get hurt.”
Pope said she has received relatively few complaints on the work. Businesses naturally are eager for it to be finished. And she received calls when the DOT changed the traffic lights to give U.S. 78 traffic more time during each sequence.
“The side streets are penalized” to improve the highway flow, Pope said. “But this is just through construction.” Once work is over, the traffic signal timing will be readjusted, she said.
Brett Harrell, director of the Evermore Community Improvement District, which includes businesses along the affected area, said he is generally pleased with how things are progressing and also has received few complaints.
The people who seem to have the most trouble are ones who travel home after the traditional 4-6 p.m. rush hour and hit the area when work is beginning, he said.
“But we are getting good cooperation,” Harrell said. “People have been hearing about it so long and they are so tired of these reversible lanes … I think most people are accepting of it.”
How do you think the project is going? Have you changed your commuting patterns because of it?
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Climbing the mountain (and other highs, lows)
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’ve often thought that we who live in the shadow of Stone Mountain take it for granted.
(Or, “for granite” as my kids teased when they were younger.)
I don’t usually come to this conclusion while passing by the towering rock, maneuvering through traffic on the way downtown. It’s amazing how easily you can ignore something that looms 825 feet above you.
Instead, the thought comes when the mountain’s appearance is unexpected, sudden and surprising. (This happens in assorted spots, such as when you top Brook Hollow Parkway in Norcross).
The thought also arises when I am up close and personal with the mountain, as I was this past weekend. Perhaps you’ve been there, too — climbing to the top (in this case, twice), impersonating someone who is fit and pretending to wait on stragglers, just so you can rest a minute.
It’s not just the physical challenge the mountain imposes that impresses me, although my calves admit to being duly affected.
It is the unlikely assemblage of human beings lured by the hike. There are the athletes sprinting up and down the slope, making everyone else look bad and feel worse. There are the folks who are out for the exercise or to prepare (by carrying 40-pound backpacks) for strenuous hiking trips. There are the tourists, some of whom are in regular street shoes and dress clothes. (The variety of languages spoken on the trail is astounding.) There are young couples, teenagers, dads with toddlers on their shoulders, senior citizens, guitarists and singers. This past weekend, there was a blind woman who, though in the company of friends, was making it on her own, cane in hand.
“We have one person who climbs it barefoot because they say that is the only way to truly commune with the mountain,” said Curtis Branscome, chief executive officer for the Stone Mountain Memorial Association. “There is one gentleman who comes up the side of the mountain to do his chanting. There is a nice lady who composes poetry and climbs up to read poetry.”
And of course, there are the people who climb early Easter morning for the sunrise service, an act that Branscome says is as much a part of the service as the service itself.
Whatever the reason that climbers come, the mile-plus (one-way) hike is nothing new. Graffiti carved into the mountain dates back to 1898, and there were surely climbers before then, Branscome said.
There’s no definite data on how many people make the trek. Of the 4 million who visit the park annually, Branscome estimates 1 million come for the attractions and 1 million come for special events. The remaining 2 million come for walking and hiking, but how that breaks down among the 15 various trails and courses, he’s not sure. His best guess is that 500,000 climb the mountain each year.
He is sure of one thing: ““If people could not walk up the mountain, there would be no Stone Mountain Park,” said Branscome, who climbs twice a month. “It is the essential feature, the core feature.”
Most years, my family makes the outing a couple or three times. This year, it’s a regular ritual for my husband and son, who are preparing for an intense hike this summer. Less so for me, who took the trail last weekend like a grumbling bear coming out of winter hibernation.
The high point of the experience, of course, is the high point — making it to the top, feeling the satisfaction (and relief) and taking in the view, which — when clear — features the skyline of Downtown, Midtown, Buckhead, the top of the Perimeter and Kennesaw Mountain. There’s nothing quite like it.
We shouldn’t take it for granite.
Around town
A few highs and lows around Snellville:
- The 21-year-old Chick-fil-A store on Main Street, the third free-standing restaurant opened by Chick-fil-A, closed temporarily Feb. 23 for renovations. It is expected to reopen March 22. “It will be dramatically different from what it was before,” said Brad Spratte, who has operated the franchise store since October. Seating and tables, counters, rest rooms and the kitchen will all be updated. Outside, there will be new landscaping, as well as a renovated playground and drive-through. Employees of the store are working at other Chick-fil-A restaurants during the work.
- Belk’s on Ga. 124 is taking over the space vacated by Goody’s clothing store in part of a $2.7 million capital improvement project in Snellville. Belk’s has gutted and renovated the 32,000 square feet of Goody’s and will be moving it’s men’s, home and children’s departments into that area. The department store will renovate its current 58,000 square feet and expand offerings in all areas. Among new offerings will be a men’s fine jewelry department and a children’s shoe department. Opening of the new Belk’s area (which is near but not physically connected to the existing store) will be March 26, with a grand opening set for May.
- Speaking of Goody’s, the clothing store on Ga. 124, closed Oct. 16. Kristin Alm of Goody’s said the closing was the result of a “normal business practice” of reviewing each store’s performance when a lease is up for renewal and closing stores that are under-performing.
- Speaking of “under-performing,” Ryan’s Grill Buffet and Bakery on Wisteria Drive closed Feb. 12 following the Jan. 22 filing of its parent company, Buffets Holdings Inc., for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. The Snellville Ryan’s was one of 50 “under-performing” stores (out of Buffets’ more than 600 restaurants throughout the country) that were closed. Michael Freitag of Kekst and Company, a public relations firm speaking on behalf of Buffets, said he is not aware of any plans for the Snellville property. The 50 employees who worked there were placed at other restaurants or given severance packages, he said.
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