?This isn't about helmets (I always wear one--don't want to become any dumber than I am).?
My friend Ali, her husband and a couple of their friends went for a ride.? Her husband and his friend got out ahead of Ali and her friend. Even though the women's horses were together, Ali's mare wanted to gallop to catch up to the leaders. When Ali checked her, the mare bucked her off. Ali went under and the horse stepped on her, pulling off her ear and breaking her neck.
Someone rode for help and after a while EMTs and an ambulance showed up. Even though the wreck was way out, emergency protocol dictated that vehicles drive to her and EMTs evaluate her before a helicopter could be dispatched. The EMTs put her in a neck brace but not a back board. Then they turned her over, screaming, to check her spine.
An hour and a half later, she was? finally air lifted to a hospital. The surgeon decided to operate without an MRI, afraid that even the slight movement of getting her to the machine might cause paralysis. That first surgery lasted over 6 hours. One vertebra in her neck was fractured and displaced--miimeters from paralyzing her.? The doctors sewed her ear back on, took bone from her hip, and made their repairs.??She is now healing, with plates and screws in her neck, and no lasting damage predicted.
We all know that this or something like it can happen to any of us at any time.? I wonder if there is anything that can be done in such a situation--you're way out in the country, broken up and needing help--that could get you a helicopter right away, and save you from handling that could so easily? finish what the fall started by severing or catastrophically compressing the spinal cord.
Maybe there's no answer, but this sure made me wonder. Anyone know?
