June 14 - Durango Emergency Room
Tuesday, June 17, 2008 at 4:47AM
Jody

We finally arrived at the Durango emergency room.  There were doctors waiting to take care of Seth.  They took Xrays and did a CT Scan.  Seth was in worse shape than we even thought.  He had a broker and dislocated left shoulder, a shattered left acetabular (where the pelvis meets the femur), a broken left patella (knee), a fracture in the right femur, a fracture in his fibula, a broken rib.  His front 3 teeth were also knocked out.  He looked like his nose might have broken but it wasn't.  He had a major gash in his left leg as well. He had marks on his forehead where he probably hit the windshield.  The GOOD thing though is the CT scan showed no bleeding or swelling of the brain and he had no neck, spine or back injuries.  I was so thankful for that.

Dr. Fury let me as well as some of our friends be in the room with him while she was examing him and helped me understand what was happening and what was wrong.  They made a quick decision to fly him up to Denver Health (which is the Rocky Mountain regional trauma center) due to the extent of his injuries.  The police also arrived and were wanting to ask Seth some questions about what happened but I asked them to leave as he was not very coherent.  Dr. Fury kept asking him questions and he would mix up his answers with biking and then digress into some work related response.  When she asked him what had happened, he said he thought he fell off a cliff and then he said he was biking in Horse Gulch.  He was obviously very confused.  The good thing is he was totally responsive as far as if she asked him to wiggle his toes or squeeze her hand, he was able to do all of this.

Darren and Erinn and Mark and Patti and Joel were with me the whole time.  It was like this wave of love and support just surrounding Seth and I as we were going through this unscouted first descent Class V type experience.  Darren ran back to our house to pack a few things for me as they said I would probably be allowed to ride on the flight with Seth to Denver.

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