{"id":97458,"date":"2018-10-16T19:06:11","date_gmt":"2018-10-17T01:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/newlywed-durango-native-almost-lost-husband-in-electrified-canal\/"},"modified":"2018-10-16T19:06:11","modified_gmt":"2018-10-17T01:06:11","slug":"newlywed-durango-native-almost-lost-husband-in-electrified-canal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/newlywed-durango-native-almost-lost-husband-in-electrified-canal\/","title":{"rendered":"Newlywed Durango native almost lost husband in electrified canal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Brandon
Brandon and Taylor Gann were in Oklahoma City when Brandon jumped into a canal to save a man, unaware the canal was electrified from a light post.<\/span>Courtesy of Taylor Gann<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Durango native Taylor Gann, formerly Taylor Perry, and her newlywed husband, Brandon Gann, were playing putt-putt golf Sept. 30 in Oklahoma City before leaving for their honeymoon in the Bahamas when they heard a scream.<\/p>\n

The scream was coming from a man who had fallen into the Bricktown Canal, according to a statement from the family.<\/p>\n

Brandon \u201ctook immediate action\u201d and jumped into the canal to save the man\u2019s life. The man was later identified as Wesley Seeley.<\/p>\n

But unknown to the newlyweds, the canal was pulsing with an electric current from a nearby faulty light post, they wrote in an email to The Durango Herald<\/em>describing the events. Brandon Gann and Seeley were both electrocuted.<\/p>\n

Seeley did not survive the shock, and Gann was unconscious without oxygen \u201cfor an extended period of time,\u201d the family wrote. He was taken to University of Oklahoma Medical Center in critical condition.<\/p>\n

Gann was unconscious in the intensive care unit for many days with Taylor by his side.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seemed unlikely that Brandon would survive,\u201d the family wrote.<\/p>\n

Their story has been featured on several news channels<\/a> in the Oklahoma City area. A GoFundMe site<\/a> has been set up to help raise money for the couple.<\/p>\n

\"Brandon
Brandon Gann is expected to make a full recovery after jumping into an electrified canal to save a man in Oklahoma City.<\/span>Courtesy of Taylor Gann<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The two met in fall 2015 in Van Buren, Arkansas. Taylor Gann, 25, left Southwest Colorado after graduating from Durango High School in 2012. She traveled around for work before meeting Brandon, 31. She still has family in Durango, who live here seasonally.<\/p>\n

Despite his condition after falling in the electrified water, Taylor\u2019s husband survived the shock and was released from the intensive care unit. The newlyweds are now back together in Fort Smith, Arkansas.<\/p>\n

The Ganns said the accident was unavoidable; the conditions around the canal were \u201chighly dangerous, posing an excessive and unnecessary risk,\u201d they wrote in their email to the Herald<\/em>. The area was not maintained, and high voltage light posts had wires that went underground that were not secured, they wrote.<\/p>\n

Oklahoma City officials originally said the lamppost was not properly grounded, but later backtracked and said the light was properly grounded, according to The Oklahoman<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite our earlier statements, the bollards that our chief electrical inspector examined yesterday were grounded and properly connected to the fixtures,\u201d Oklahoma City spokeswoman Kristy Yager said in a statement to The Oklahoman<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Ganns questioned what could have been done to prevent the tragedy and what will be done now to ensure something similar doesn\u2019t happen again. Who was responsible, the family asked, and why were dangerous conditions allowed to persist?<\/p>\n

\u201cBrandon and Taylor\u2019s lives will never be the same,\u201d the family wrote. \u201cWhat should have been a joyous time quickly turned into a nightmare. What should have been cherished memories are instead painful reminders.\u201d<\/p>\n

bhauff@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

into water to save victim in Oklahoma City<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-97458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97458"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=97458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}