I want to make myself clear
to the woman who saved Ted's life. In any emergency such as this, AIRWAY
is #1 for checking. She probably did save his life by doing just
that.
Now, about the helmet and ride
camp.
This is an on line information
center. We all ask questions and people who have an answer write
back. What I want to say is that, when someone has a helmet on, and they
have had a traumatic experience, such as a fall and when someone is lying on the
ground, next to their horse unconcious, they fell off. It came to my
mind an article I read somewhere, probobly CEU's for my nursing license, that a
trauma patient's helmet should not be removed unless you are trained in the
field of emergency/trauma. Even then, a field nurse may very well leave
that person's helmet on untill the injured is secured into a c-spine
transporter. I only posted to ride camp with this info so that we could
all be more knowledgable riders and rescurers if the need arose.
To the people who immediatly
assumed I was being critical of this woman's brave act, get a life.
Ted gave us all a big scare at the FITS ride yesterday. Please pray for
a full recovery for him. He was riding his horse , (I believe for the 3rd
day this week, although not all three in a row), when he stepped in a hole
and did a somersault over Ted. Ted was laying face down unable to move his
hands or legs, but did have feeling in them. He was coherent though. Mary
Coleman who was riding with him, (riding the 6th day in a row on her
Morgan Hawk,(and was the only rider who completed all 6 days on one horse)
saw the horse flip and got off to assist him. She carefully removed he
helmet and cleared all the sand out of his nose and mouth, he said he
thought she may have saved his life as he could not breathe from being down
in the sand. She did not move him, she was close to a road and flagged
someone down who called 911. The ride management got help to him really fast
too. They helicopted him to the Shandes Hospital in Gainesville, FL, where
he responded very quickly to treatment. Helen Kohler, trail coordinator for
the ride, drove Mike Caudill to the hospital since he is a good friend,
and gave us all the report. He has movement in his legs, and one arm so far
and was going in for an MRI late last night as Mike left the hospital. We
will be going to the hospital again today to check on him, hope test went
well. Ted is a remarkable man, he is 78 years old, looks like 68 though, is
a farrier and still shoes for 140 clients. He is really tough. He lives in
northern Indiana and drove down to Florida for this ride alone. He rides a
wired horse who had fought him all but the last day. I will write more if i
find anyting out,
