Near Tragedy

Here is the 411 on Kimy's accident with pictures & video captured with her camera by Karston. She flew in to Utah on Tuesday, July 21 then left the next day for Idaho with Karston and her Uncle Derek on a horse riding adventure in the Idaho mountains. The first day everything was great. The next day, on the way back to camp, her horse got excited as they neared camp and unexpectedly took off into a full gallup. She lost her grip and fell out of the saddle but got her foot caught in the stirrup and was subsequently dragged under the horse for a couple of seconds, over rocks in a partial stream bed (if you can image that). This was a huge horse too; roughly 16 hands and 1,200 pounds. She ended up on all fours in the stream bed and was unable to move even her arms without severe back pain. Karston stayed with her and kept the flies & bugs off her and kept her warm (she was cold & wet and muddy) while Uncle Derek ran down the mountain for cell service to call in Search & Rescue. His good friend Sean, who is a volunteer with Search & Rescue was reached in Logan and made record time to arrive 1st on the scene. Thank you so much Sean! Others were right behind and soon carried Kimy out to where a four-wheeler trailer could transport her out of the mountains to the awaiting ambulance. Getting her from the scene to the ambulance took over 1 hour. She remained on the backboard for over 3 1/2 hours. I arrived at the Franklin County Medical Center in Preston, Idaho while Kimy was in Radiology. They found she had broken her back with two fractures to her tranverse processes, L1 & L2. Five days later at McKay Dee hospital during her follow-up, an MRI showed 2 additional fractures in her back, bringing the total to four. Two compression fractures (T4 & L1) and two transverse process fractures (L1 & L2). The spine specialist told us that we may discover more fractures when we do follow-ups in San Antonio.


I tear up everytime I watch the videos because; 1. My daughter was hurting, 2. I wasn't there to take care of my precious girl, 3. The gratitude I feel for those that helped Kimy in her time of need. Thank you so very much to all those that responded and took care of Kimy that day - God bless them and all others that serve the needs of others! Thanks to God she was protected from life threatening injuries or death. Things could have gone so much worse!