The Accident Story - Part One: “Autumn Fall”

Day 126

This is a drawing I did - a possible book cover for

"The Accident Story"

“First dinner and then the accident story.”

- line from the 1987 movie Back To The Beach

I referenced this particular line because it applies to me and what I am blogging about today. There are people who love to talk about an accident they have had, to any willing (or unwilling) audience. And I am guilty of that! Yesterday was one of my “anniversaries” - 24 years ago I had an accident in which I fell from a tree and broke both of my femurs. I’ve told this story to many, many people and my family has, unfortunately, often been in the room when I’ve been telling this. I’m sure they are sick to death of it, and I don’t mean to dwell on it. But I have to admit that I enjoy telling “the accident story” or rather I don’t mind telling it; because even though it brings back painful memories for me, I can appreciate the fact that I can remind myself of what happened and where I’m at now and how lucky I am to be able to walk again…better still, to be alive!

So, for my dear, faithful readers who know my story and don’t particularly need to read about it AGAIN, feel free to take a pass on this. And to give you all a head’s up, my story is being divided up into 4 parts, and every Thursday this month I’ll be posting another part of the story. Well, you’ve been warned.

................................................................................................

It was Monday October 6th 1986 in Rigby, Idaho. Spud Harvest had just begun, which meant that school was closed for the next two weeks…VACATION!! I was so excited to have a break from school (ooh, ‘break’ was certainly an appropriate word for this!) and this was the first official day of vacation. My brother Josh and I spent most of the morning outside, just having a fun ol’ time! There were numerous trees around our house and somehow we got the idea to build a tree house. Cool! And since there were plenty of trees to go around, Josh and I each picked our own tree to climb and make a plan for a house.

In the afternoon, sometime after 2, I was in my selected tree, just sitting on one of the branches, enjoying the view below. I was up fairly high in the tree (about 20 feet off the ground) and I started to dangle/swing from a branch. Literally just “hanging around.” And then I heard a ‘snap’ and I felt myself fall and suddenly the world went completely dark. I need to mention that the trees surrounding the house were cottonwood trees - their branches are very weak and frail, so these are not the kind of trees anyone should be climbing!

I must have passed out because when I came to I was on the ground, having just rolled over onto my back. My first thoughts were that I was afraid that I had either lost or broken my glasses. Then I was afraid I may have hit my mouth on the ground and knocked some teeth out, even though I didn’t feel any pain in my mouth. Then I figured I broke a leg and would need to hop/hobble into the house. I wasn’t panicked, probably because I was dealing with an adrenaline rush. But then I tried to sit up and I was overcome with the most intense pain I had ever experienced in my life up to this point.

Then I noticed my legs…both of my legs were swollen. My pants were so tight and my thighs felt so thick. And I couldn’t move an inch. Josh was in a nearby tree and rushed over to me. When he saw my legs he started yelling for help, and soon my mom rushed out of the house. She nearly stopped dead in her tracks when she saw me on the ground, with my swollen legs. Jaimee ran for help, running to a neighbor’s house (which was quite far away, since we lived in such a secluded neighborhood).

I remember that I was surrounded by people, looking down on me and trying to decide what to do for me. The paramedics were on the way, as was a fire truck. It took the fire truck a long time to get to our house because it was hard to find. The fire fighters determined that I would have to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance, because I would need to have my legs in splints and there wouldn’t be room in the truck for me to be laid out.

Another thing I remember is that I was begging for pain meds, I was asking for a shot of something, anything! The adrenaline rush had ended and now I was a wreck! But everyone around me seemed so calm, so matter-of-fact, and at one point people were making jokes and small talk. Of course, I didn’t understand at the time that they were just trying to keep me calm, because the situation was critical.

My legs were swollen because of internal bleeding, so I was at risk of dying (something I didn’t understand until some time later). The ambulance arrived and the next thing I remember was having my jacket and shirt cut off. Then I was in tremendous pain when my legs were put into splints. And the ride in the ambulance was torture because every stop, every bump, every bounce along the way shook my legs and sent electric waves of pain throughout my entire body.

This was the view from my room in the hospital.

I remember being taken into the hospital in Idaho Falls, being put into a room and waiting for the doctors. My dad was there with another man, a member of our ward, and together they gave me a priesthood blessing. I was in such a daze that I don’t remember much of anything else, until I woke up in my room, the room I would remain in for the next 3 ½ weeks.

There was an outpouring of support, love and concern for me and my family. The members of our ward banded together to help in anyway they could. I began having numerous visitors, particularly family members. For example, the Garrett Case family (who lived in Rexburg, a nearby city) came; other relatives and friends came, some all the way from Utah. I was told that meals were brought regularly to my family, as my mom and dad took turns staying with me at the hospital, especially in those first few days.

All of the sudden love and support, the overwhelming acts of kindness and charity, the pure selflessness of people was like a miracle. If I didn’t fully appreciate it then, I certainly do now. I have all of these cards, these mementos saved and when I look at them I realize how lucky I was, how blessed I was.

I had survived the surgery that had successfully stopped the internal bleeding and had pins installed into my legs, just below the knee, attached to weights secured at the end of my hospital bed. This was only the beginning of my long recovery…

Me in traction - Mom, staying by my side.

Additional notes: it was a miracle that in the end I had only broken my femurs - everything else with my body was fine; the femur is supposedly the strongest bone in the body; I heard that my accident was reported on news radio; and the reason I broke my femurs was because I landed on my feet and the impact is what busted my femurs! Ouch!!