We had a big family trip planned for labor day to the San Rafael Swell for some camping and hiking. Dad, Me, Steve Shay and zeb and our Kids got down to camp on thursday. Cher and her kids were coming Friday to join us. Friday we headed over to the swell to crack canyon to do the narrows hike we were about an hour in when the trail kind of split and took and upper path and lower path. Pretty soon the lower path dipped down and the upper path gradually sloped up which made for quite the gap between the two paths. some of us were down on the bottom part, mom, bridger, mccrae and steve were up on top. (maybe 12 feet?) Mom went to stoop around a little overhang and lost her balance. Her reaction was to jump about 4 feet down to a lower ledge to catch herself. When she landed on the next ledge down she had too much momentum to stop herself and tumbled head first to the next set of rocks and from there fell again another 4 feet into dad’s arms on bottom. We were all a little shook up and at that point didn’t know what our plan was. There was a lot of bleeding from a bad cut above her eyebrow that had initially made us all extremely nervous until we found out where it was coming from. we had no cell phone service and were in there quite a ways. Mom , the strong woman that she is, took 4 ibuprofen and told us that she needed to get out of there and that she was going to walk herself out! We made her a sling for her shoulder that was in such bad pain and up she got. Dad and shay walked by her side to keep her steady on the one arm but her left arm was so bad no one was able to help her on the other side. It was such a miracle that she was able to walk herself out of there. We finally made it back to the trucks and headed for green river to the medical center and to find cell phone service . We had her stabilized at the green river medical center and from there they took her to price by ambulance. Dad rode with her to price while the rest of us rushed back to camp to get the trailers and clean up camp. I left ahead of the rest in my car to try to get to price so dad had a car if she had to be airlifted. She had head to toe CT scans in price and from there was taken to Utah Valley by helicopter. We got a hold of cher before she headed down to meet us and instead she was able to meet my mom at UVRM when the helicopter arrived. After many scans x rays mris and many doctors evaluating her. Here is what they found…….I don’t know all the technicalities and terms so don’t take it too official I will explain it the best I can.
Collapsed lung with a slight puncture which allowed some air and fluid in. 7 broken ribs, fractured skull from top of forehead across the eyebrow and bridge of her nose, and something with her orbital scoket?, broken bones in behind the nose, bulged disks below the neck, chip in back of skull above neck, I once heard vertebrae wings broken, severe broken collar bone, and broken wrist.
She is stable and staying very strong. The pain is the worst part that they are trying to get under control. She had surgery when we got to UVRM on friday night to insert a tube to drain her lung and to go in and clean out the fractured skull by the eye to prevent infection. Lots of scans yesterday (saturday) and surgery again this morning to fix the collar bone and wrist. It should be her last surgery because all of her other injuries have to just heal on their own and can’t be surgically fixed.
We are so thankful for everyone’s concern, support and prayers on behalf of our family. The support we have had is what is getting us through each day. There is a long recovery ahead and we are just taking things one day at a time. We are so thankful for the miracle that she was able to walk out of there and know that because of her faith and prayers she was able to do that. Thanks again to everyone for your love support and prayers. It is very appreciated!
