How Time Flies

Tomorrow it will have been two weeks since Dad's accident. I can't believe how quickly time has flown! Several of you have asked questions about what exactly happened, so I hope this will clear things up for you. =) I am just going to use an email that my uncle sent out with a few of my own notes thrown in. My notes are in brown.

Thanks for your prayers for Matt. It was a very serious injury. The accident happened at 1:45.  Due to sudden impact into the handle bars, 3 broken ribs, cracked sternum, punctured lung. We have had conflicting reports on the punctured lung. The doctors down here said that it was just bruised. So either God miraculously healed the puncture or the original analysis was wrong. Struggling to breathe, spitting some blood, gurgling sounds from the chest. We were able to get a message to EMS to send out oxygen. At 2:30 the first rescuer arrived with Oxygen. More rescuers arrived around 3:15, but the paramedic did not arrive till about 3:45. Did not get Matt packed and out of the creek till approximately 4:15. Did not get to the ambulance till 5:00. By this time he is borderline hypothermic but they had the ambulance hot and ready. At the hospital they put a tube in his chest and installed a line for IV fluids. Took X-rays/cat scans. Due to the injuries to his lung, and being in close proximity to the heart, they determined to fly him to Denver. (not having support from his ribs, we can literally see his heart beating. Kinda cool but so NOT cool, people!) By 11:00 PM he was at Denver health.

Due to nationwide prayers, Matt is now home recovering. Praise God for modern medicine. Praise God for complete strangers who were not even part of the rescue team jumping in to help. Circumstances like this make any difficulties we think we are facing seem mighty small. We are blessed. God is good!

Here are some images of the scene. Obviously the images cannot give you a full understanding of how extreme the terrain was. We were down in a bowl, at the bottom of a creek bed with running water below us. Best guess,  the climb out of the bowl was close to 200 vertical feet at a 30% grade. One of the rescue workers described the extrication as "epic".

These are some of the pictures that my uncle took:

Routt County Search and Rescue about 4 miles from the scene

Dad lying in the snow at the bottom of the creek bed in a blanket with his hat over his face

Dad was at the bottom of this steep hill

Dad packed into a sled. (Two snowmobiles attached to pull)

Dad with a paramedic

The hill was so steep that the snowmobiles couldn't make it and they had to carry Dad up by hand. At the top of the hill the snowmobiles took over and pulled him the rest of the way to the ambulance.

My dad is doing pretty well now, though he still has a lot of healing to do. Thank you all so much for your prayers! It has been so amazing to see all of the ways that God provided throughout this whole adventure. I was going to tell some of the story from my point of view, but I think you get enough of the gist without my input.