Loon Lake and LIFE FLIGHT

KC had a blog worthy event today. This is him… We started out at the Ruby Meadows trailhead heading towards Loon Lake (the site of the old World War 2 plane wreck) but we didn’t make it there…. Patrick (a guy I work with) was trying to keep up with Todd (another guy I work with) and he ran off the side of the trail. He had one foot planted on the trail and his body and his bike went down the hill and below a tree. His bike fell onto his leg dislocating his left knee.

By the time I got there he had straightened his leg back out cause he said it was grossing him out looking at it cause it was at a 45 degree angle from the knee down. He said he’d been laying on the ground about 4 or 5 minutes by the time I got there but I don’t think it was that long. Todd finally came back and he and I assessed the situation. Patrick's knee hadn’t popped back in and he didn’t want us to even touch his leg. So I gave Todd my cell phone and he rode out to Secesh in hopes of finding a landline.

In the meantime I stayed with Patrick and was able to build him a lean-to cover for shade. I also gave him about 5 motrin to calm him down and for the pain. Luckily there was a creek about 20 yards below us and I was able to use a hanky to get him cool water for his face. His foot and lower leg were swelling up (it’d been an hour or so at this point) so I took his right boot off first and then with a small pair of surgical scissors that he had in his first aid kit I cut the buckle on his other boot to remove the pressure on his hurt leg.

We waited for roughly 3 hours before Todd made it back. During those 3 hours we had some interesting hikers and their dog come and hang out with us. Kindof annoying when Patrick is in pain and we’re trying to keep the dog away from him….yet they still decided to make themselves at home and sat down to eat lunch.

Back to Todd… He finally shows back up with 3 EMT’s. One riding double with him and 2 on their own bikes. Vern Peterson (a Secesh local & customer at Hinson’s) was on his way with a 4 wheeler but it was a single track trail so he had to go really really slow. Willy (who used to work at Hinson’s & happened to be out on a day ride through Secesh) stopped when he saw Todd talking to Vern and decided to come in and help.

While the EMT’s were taking care of Patrick, Todd rode back out to where Vern was on his 4-wheeler cause he was taking a while to get the backboard there. Todd strapped it to his back and rode back in to us.

So the EMT’s had an inflatable splint they put on his left leg…. Earlier I had cut some limbs and stuff but he wouldn’t let me brace his leg at all. And then one of the EMT’s stared looking for an “LZ”. (Which in EMT talk means Landing Zone for life flight). Vern finally got there with his 4-wheeler and had a chainsaw with him so once we found a suitable LZ he got busy clearing some trees around the area. (Vern lives in Secesh and the official LZ in Secesh is on his property.)

3 of us were trying to move Patrick while they were clearing the LZ but were only able to take him about 60 yards. Patrick is 6’3” and a big boy. So once life flight was able to land everybody came back and helped us carry him the rest of the way.

Patrick is a funny guy. He was in a good mood by the time we got him to the helicopter and his mom also works for a Dr. at the McCall hospital. He was cracking jokes as we were loading him into the helicopter and when they put the headset on him he was saying things like “Hello Rubber Duckie! This is Fat Santa.”

Soooo…we’ll be re-scheduling our trip back into Loon lake cause we never got there. Anybody wanna come?