Little Nekia McCloud, age four,
who was probably putting her doll
down for a nap when the bomb shat-
tered America’s Kids, seems to have
been blown out of the building. It is
unclear exactly where she was found,
but medic Jason Skaggs, whose unit
reached the scene at 9:07, says some-
one thrust her into his arms minutes
after he arrived.
“I couldn’t imagine that this child
could live,” Skaggs says. “She was
hardly breathing—just torn all to
pieces.” There was every reason to
“call” the child and move on to some-
one with better odds of surviving. But
Skaggs refused to deny the little girl a
chance for life and pumped her chest
as he ran with her to an ambulance.
Nekia was in such horrible shape
when she reached the hospital that
her family was not allowed to see her
at first. Doctors asked them to bring
photographs so they could try to iden-
tify her in that fashion. According to
Faye DeBose, Nekia’s grandmother,
the little girl’s skull was crushed. Both
legs were broken, and her lungs were
filled with debris.
The doctors told the family that if
she could survive for 72 hours, she
would have a chance. And on the third
day, as her grandmother sat holding
the unconscious child’s hand and
praying, she felt a squeeze. “Sooner
or later,” says DeBose, “I knew Nekia
would be OK.”
But it would be later rather than
sooner. Nekia’s injuries were so gravethat she had to virtually start her
young life over—learning to talk, to
walk, to understand what was going
on around her. She was in a coma fora month. That is why the family was
so overwhelmed at what Nekia said
when she was starting to speak again.
The family had sought out medic
Jason Skaggs, now a police officer, to
thank him for not giving up on their
child. Upon meeting Skaggs, the little
girl first looked at him shyly, then
turned to her mother and grandmother
and said quietly, “He’s my angel.”BRAVE TO THE END
Hope of finding others lay in the
ghastly ruins of the Murrah Build-
ing that first day when hundreds of
people were listed simply as miss-
ing. In the absence of solid informa-
tion, people grasped at whatever they
could find for sustenance.
One of those missing was Michael
Loudenslager, 48, who was in his office
at the General Services Administration
on the first floor when the bomb ex-
ploded. For two days, his wife, Bettie
Loudenslager, and their two children
heard nothing. But their hopes bright-
ened when one of Michael’s friends,“I COULDN’T IMAGINE
THIS CHILD COULD
LIVE. SHE WAS HARDLY
BREATHING.”100 april 2020
Reader’s Digest