Breaking News, Literally

Update 2: Surgery is done. The doctor said the tibia was pretty easy, but the fibula was tricky. She is in recovery now.

Update 1
: Jolene is in surgery now. The doctor said it should go fine. She'll be home later today.

Jolene broke her leg mountain biking yesterday.

Riding along the ridge (157) trail just before the 4-way. I about went down on a downhill slight left-hand turn where the edge of the trail has sloughed away. Sadly, Jolene crashed.

She endoed and landed on her right leg hard. I was just ahead and heard her yelp then say "I broke my leg!" Sure enough her ankle didn't look right. When I tried to move her it hurt badly. I finally got her off the trail but by the way her foot was dangling it was clear both bones above the ankle were broken (tibia, fibula).



Not 5 minutes later four guys on motorcycles came by and stopped. One guy had an AT&T cell phone that got signal so he called and got Search and Rescue (S&R) on the way.

Mountain bikers also stopped including Josh (the photos are his) and the Bike Peddler group ride. We fiddle with some splinting ideas, but any little movement of her foot was incredibly painful so we decided to wait for S&R. But we all built a little fire to keep busy as the sun was setting.

As it was getting dark two S&R guys arrived on motorcycles. They helped and made radio contact with the S&R team. About half hour later the medical guys arrived - gave her morphine and put a vacuum splint on her leg. They loaded her in a stokes (a litter with handles at each and and a wheel under the middle) and wheeled her down the Deer Creek South Fork trail to a waiting ambulance.

This was the S&R response that arrived at the summit parking lot (photo by Josh).


At the hospital (UVRMC) they got her comfortable, took x-rays then got her in a room. She will have surgery today to install screws, plates whatever fix it up.

She wasn't happy about breaking her leg, but thanks to so many kind and helpful people she got off the mountain and taken care off. I'll have more later.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Man, so sorry to hear. Hope the surgery goes well and she heals quickly!

Kudos to S&R and all others who stopped and helped out. Always good to know people step up when needed.

mtb w

South County Ciclista said...

Hope she heals fast.

Derek said...

That is an impressive amount of SAR. I am sorry for Jolene and hope she heals quickly. This makes me second guess my many solo jaunts.

Anonymous said...

Wow! Talk about an unexpected ending to an evening ride. I wish her the best and a speedy recovery. (At least this happened at the end of the season. . .)
~SalGal

Watcher said...

Oh man, that is a huge bummer. I'm real sorry to hear it and wish Jolene smooth surgery and recovery, Sounds like S&R were all over it.

I was glad to see she was smiling. Jolene is a tough lady.

Anonymous said...

Get well soon!

-kp

Ski Bike Junkie said...

Hope she heals quickly.

Spandex King said...

WoW! Both bones! Hope she get's better soon!

Joshua said...

I wish I would have gotten a better picture of the S&R guys. It looked like the appocolypse or something.
Favorite quote's from Jolene while laying there waiting for S&R:
-(To Kris on the phone with the kids)"Tell them to do their homework!"
-"Oh well, at least it's Conference weekend."
That's quite a tough girl you've got there Kris. Here's to a speedy recovery.

Jesse said...

I wandered in from Fatty's blog. Crazy wreck! Hope she's better soon! And I will say, that spiffy little rolling contraption she was loaded up on looks way cooler than the board they carried me out on here in CO a couple months ago. I might have to give our local fire/rescue some better ideas.

Heal quick!

Randall Smith said...

I'm another redirect from Fatty's blog. Best wishes for a full recovery.

RJS

Anonymous said...

I'm glad to see you've enjoyed lots of Fall rides. Sad to see it come to an end for you for this season. Heal well & quickly! ~Gayle

Anonymous said...

Obviously, my comment is meant for your sweet wife! Take good care of her! ~Gayle