Skiier Down

On the slopes, waiting for ski patrol

Grace took spill yesterday at Badger Pass and was ski patrolled off the mountain and then put in a helicopter to a Modesto trauma center. 

She went over a tiny little jump and ended up face down in the snow with her arms under her.  (We have a video of her face down)   Drew was the first on the scene and turned her over.  She was conscious and crying.  They talked and she said she would sit up.  And then Drew said all in one motion she jumped up and and headed to her skis. 

They started to head down the slopes and got part way down and she stopped saying she thought she was going to throw up.  Jim stopped with her and Drew headed down to tell me that she had crashed and he thought we were going to be taking her to the hospital.  As soon as he started talking I immediately had the feeling that she was going for a helicopter ride.

Drew and I went out to the slopes and looked up and we could see Jim and Grace stopped.  We each went in separate directions to find a ski patrol and sent them up the hill.  Drew ran and and jumped on the lift so he could ski down and help.

He got there and immediately started helping the ski patrol and trying to comfort his sister.  They assessed her on the slopes and strapped her to a board and dragged her down behind a snow mobile.  Drew had to ski right next to the sled because she was hysterically calling for him and got more frantic if she could not see him.

She was brought into the medical hut and assessed by a nurse.  The first decision was to move her via ambulance to Fresno.  But as they started assessing her, we quickly made the decision that a helicopter was the best decision.  She was confused and repetitive and super agitated.  She kept calling for Drew and making him promise he wouldn't leave her.  It was heart wrenching.  He was amazing thru the whole thing.

Loading up to head up to the top of the hill at the back of the pic to get loaded onto the helicopter

Here is the helicopter she was in as it flew away

Unfortunately there was only enough room in the helicopter for the two flight nurses and Grace.  We had to drive 3 hours to the hospital.  It was a loooong looong ride. We drove to the cabin, dropped off the dogs and the people and Jim and I headed down the hill.

We got the to hospital they could not find her in the system because she was still listed as "Trauma, November" not her name.   They quickly figured out she was the female in Trauma Bay 3 and escorted me in while Jim parked the car.  I turned the corner into Grace's room to see this (above).  What a relief!

She did not remember anything about the day and could only remember a little bit of the time at the hospital.  She did not remember them cutting off her clothes or being xrayed.  And sadly, she did not remember the helicopter ride!

The diagnosis was concussion.  Tests showed no other injuries, which was interesting as she was complaining about left side pain on the mountain and the nurse was concerned about broken ribs or liver/spleen injuries.

She was super goofy at the hospital.  She was no longer agitated but was repetitive - asking the same questions over and over:

Where is Drew?

Who is at the cabin?

Did they cut off my Jacket?  I like that jacket.  It's so swaggy.

Look at the swaggy socks they gave me.

She did not remember anything about the week before except that we went skiing on Monday but she thought it was at Bear instead of Dodge.

She told the Physicians Assistant that she was powering all the computers with her heartbeat thru the monitors on her chest?!?!?!  What????  Where did that come from.

We talked with multiple doctors who said she could go home and be watched at home because the only treatment for a concussion is rest.  They had done brain scans and everything was normal so there was no reason to keep her.  So we left the hospital and headed back to the cabin.  It was a long trip.  She was super nauseous and had the window down the whole way.  She was in the front seat and I was in the back seat wind tunnel at temperatures hovering around 30 degrees!  Jim was driving with a hood on.

Grace slept thru the nite and felt much better this morning.  She seems to be cognitively better and her head does not hurt.

Trauma, November

Obsessed with her swaggy socks

A stabbing victim came in and Jim was playing the role of Scoop MaGee

This is what was left of her jacket

Other highlights of the day:

Tina played sherpa and hauled all our gear and dogs to the car....including Grandma Anna

Marty moved both cars to the loading area and left the key turned in the Tahoe so that when we tried to head out the Tahoe battery was dead.  It only delayed us 2 minutes - the amount of time it took Drew to rip the cables out of the back of the Tahoe and hook them up.

Grace told the nurse at the Medical Shack that her awesome muscles were to big and awesome for the blood pressure cuff!

A parking lot attendent tried to send Marty down the parking lot a different way and Marty pointed up at the helicopter and said "that's my family in there, I am going that way."

Distracting Grace in the Medical Hut with Amanda's chin pimple.  Grace would get hysterical and I would say, "hey, look here at Amanda's pimple."  Grace would move her eyes and be distracted for a little while.

Grace going back and forth between being terrified of the IV needle and being ok with it.  At one point very clearly saying, "no thank you, I don't want a needle."