It has been an extraordinary time since we have been forced off the road. We are now back in New York, flew into Rochester on Oct 20 and after visiting with dear family are currently staying in a "barn apartment" at our friends Harry and Muffy's near Oneonta. Kathy got the stitches in her head out last week, there were a little over 30 of them. Now she has to let her neck vertebrae heal and was fortunate to find a doctor to follow up on her healing.
The moments of the accident and immediately following were extraordinary and will leave indelible marks on our memories. We are both grateful to be alive and grateful that Kathy will be ok after she heals, that is our mutual overwhelming feeling. Kathy doesn't remember anything from the time we started going off the road to the point where she realized that she was lying on the ground and a group of people were attending to her. I remember some amazing and rapid events that were unreal and gripping. It was October 7, 4:53 PM. As we were traveling down I-15, I was sitting back and lost in thought when I suddenly felt the trailer swaying behind us. It all happened so quickly. I remember the truck rolling over a few times, someone said it was one and a half times, but I couldn't tell from inside how much we rolled. It just struck me that "this can't be happening." We came to a stop with the truck resting on its side, my side, so Kathy was above me and hanging by her seat belt. I quickly unlatched my seat belt and reached up to get her out of her seatbelt. Then she stood up on the center console, with me holding her legs. All the windows were smashed and she could get her head out the side window. I realized there was a large group of people outside the truck ready to assist us. They were there immediately, what a great display of the best in people, willing to help. Someone yelled "how many are there?" I responded "Two." I think we repeated that exchange. They got Kathy out by assisting her through the drivers window and then I stood up inside the truck. My glasses had come off, so I looked around and found them, still ok. It didn't occur to me at that point to look for Kathy's glasses, and then it was my turn to get out. Some of the helpers were trying to break a lower window thinking that would be easier for me to escape from. I yelled out that I could get out the same way Kathy did and proceeded to pull myself out the drivers window too. They had Kathy lying on the ground when I got out, and instructed me to lie next to her. Two different paramedics were checking us out, one was already talking with Kathy and the other started with me. I learned later that his name was Jonathon and he was two vehicles behind us when he saw the crash. I realized pretty quickly that I wasn't hurt badly. I was covered with blood, but most of it was Kathy's. She had a big gash on her head and I remarked to her that she was going to need stitches. At which I was instructed not to alarm her. Jonathon was seeing if I had any soreness, and I realized I had some sore ribs, at the points where the seat belt would have dug in. I wasn't too bad. Kathy also realized that the fingers on her left hand were tingling, that was not a good sign. The paramedics realized that she could have a serious neck injury and had her lying very still. They soon got her on a back board to keep her immobilized. She was never able to look around the accident scene itself. Even though I was instructed to lie down, I sat up and look around. The place looked like a hurricane had come through. Our trailer was torn apart and all of our stuff was strewn about. What a mess. Later, we would have to go through it, but at the towing company's yard. For now, I knew that we had to get Kathy to a hospital quickly and when the ambulance showed up we were ready to roll. I managed to pick up a sweater that was lying on the ground and my jacket, and a woman police officer held up our laptop still in the case and asked me if I wanted to take that. It would still work. They also located Kathy's purse, and I still had my cell phone attached to my belt, so with only those items, the laptop and no extra clothes we went off in the ambulance to the hospital back to Cedar City where we had driven through earlier.
At the hospital they sewed up Kathy's wound, did a good job with that, and took X-Rays of both of us. When they found out that Kathy had a broken vertebrae, the C7 in her neck, they said they would have to airlift her to the Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah - near Salt Lake City. I didn't receive that news so well, but that was our only chance. So off we went in a Life Flight plane - see http://intermountainhealthcare.org/services/lifeflight/Pages/home.aspx/ Kathy was strapped down in the back brace (she didn't like that), I sat in a seat up front, two evac nurses and the pilot Tyler skillfully guiding the plane through the night sky. From the Salt Lake airport they transported us by ambulance to the Medical Center. When we arrived at IMC, another ambulance arrived at the same time. The two crews knew each other well and exchanged pleasant greetings. I found out that the other victim had been hiking down in the Glen Canyon Recreation area and had fallen. He had a broken C2 vertebrae, which was a worse break than Kathy's, but not knowing how badly he was hurt he hiked out a long ways to get medical help. he and other family members were up in a section called the "Hole in the Rock" where back in 1879 some Mormon pioneers had managed get their wagon train down a steep 2000 foot drop to the Colorado River. I met his wife later and she said they had come up the Hole in the Rock from Glen Canyon below and were near the top when he fell. They eventually got to a hospital in Page, Az and like us had to be transported to the IMC for surgical care. see http://www.nps.gov/glca/historyculture/holeintherock.htm
Our hearts go out to everyone who let us know that we were being thought of and cared about and to the whole group of people with Intermountain Health Care who gave Kathy exceptional care and made us feel welcome and cared for. Kathy had her surgery on October 8, was done about 8:30 PM, and we stayed at the hospital until she was released on October 13. We stayed in the Salt Lake area in a comfortable extended stay apartment through Springhill apartments, got a great medical rate of $50/night, and our thanks to the good people there who made sure we had all we needed. We saw Dr. Bauman, her surgeon again on October 19. He told us to come back and hike the Grand Canyon and Utah again and it was then we learned that he has hiked numerous times in the nearby Wasatch range. He and his dog have been up Mt Olympus at least 6 times, since it's right near his house. I got to hike up it on October 17, see photo I took on my hike, the Intermountain Medical Center is the most prominent landmark visible. The building we were in was the large glass sided one to the right. We enjoyed the view from our room looking at the Wastach Mountains, many were snow covered. Olympus is a little over 9000 feet high and did not have snow on it the day I climbed it. There were marvelous views going up it and of course at the top. I told Dr Bauman that we would be back to hike out here, and I hope I'm right.
