Sunday, August 17, 2008

Tragedy:(

Well on Saturday a group of us decided to take our kids hiking up to Lake Blanche up Big Cotton Canyon. So there was 6 adults and 8 kids. It was really fun... we had to stop and look at everything and take several breaks because of the kids. We were about halfway up the trail when a man came running down and asked if we had a cell phone, Lisa started searching in her bag and I saw how panicked she was so I ran to her and the man said that a man was having a heart attack!!!! I looked at Lisa and she said to me we've got your kids GO!!!

I took off running up the mountain trying to remember my EMT training. It took me about 15-20 minutes to get up to the victim.... his name was Roger and he had been down about 25-30 minutes. There was a Doctor there and several bystanders. The doctor said we haven't given him a breath in a while. I proceeded to give Roger 2 breaths... I could tell his insestinal fluid was comimg up... he also started to foam at the mouth, so we decided since we did not have a mouth guard we would not give anymore breaths. We did chest compressions for another 45 minutes. The doctor looked at me and said do you feel it's the right decision to stop.... I thought for several seconds about this decision.... Roger had been down for an hour and a half... we could only feel a pulse w compressions.... but I kept thinking this is someones dad and grandpa... what would I want someone to do if this was my family? So I accessed him again and his eyes were completed dialated and we had no pulse for more than an hour... I told the doc I was fine with it. He made the anouncement to the group and everone agreed it was the right thing to do. I dressed him and we covered him w a tarp.

Just a few minutes after that we head the helicopter.... we knew the saw the tarp and knew this was going to be a recovery instead of a rescue..... Daren and Lisa had come up to make sure I was ok and to help. We directed the helicopter and 2 men said they would stay w Roger so we proceeded down the mountain. I met up w my kids who were extremely happy to see me and immediatly the questions started coming. I answered the best I could and when we got down the mountain there was a news crew and several sheriffs. Lisas husband Chucks wanted me to go on camera but I was not wanting to at all. I watched the news that night and they had said there was a Doctor and an EMT trying to save the man (EMT being me). My heart goes out to Rogers family and I hope they know we all tried our hardest and wish the outcome had been different. God bless Roger and his family.

Here are the links to the Fox 13 story and the new article. http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_10227933
http://www.myfoxutah.com/myfox/pages/ContentDetail?contentId=7223782

1 comment:

MEGGandBOBBY said...

O my god melissa I am so sorry that is a horrbile tragedy and I hope that you are ok...