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Ok, so its day two of our all-too-brief stay in West Virginia, and we spent the entire day on the mountain skiing. The sun was out today, and it was a bit warmer. The snow softened up enough to be forgiving, but never really became slushy. A great day for skiing. We all had a good time, though we all could have used some sun screen, as we all sunburned our faces.
Toward the end of the afternoon, my wife took the girls over to the snow tubing park for a change of pace. I opted to stay on my skis and try to get a few good runs in before the lifts closed. As I was riding up the lift for what I had decided would be my last run, I watched a woman take a pretty spectacular fall. She caught one of her ski edges funny, and lost her balance. Somehow, one of her poles ended up between her legs, and she crashed pretty hard. Someone on the lift asked her if she was okey, and she replied with a "No" that clearly conveyed her pain.
When I reached the top of the lift, I asked the lift attendant to call the ski patrol, and headed down the run. When I reached the woman, she was clutching her knee. She asked me to take off her ski, but when I tried to release the binding, it increased the pain in her knee, so I decided to wait for the ski patrol to arrive. Her pole was still between her legs, wedged between the ski and the ground, and I couldn't move that either. I knelt beside her and talked to her until the ski patrol arrived.
The first ski patroller to arrive began to assess her injuries, and when he touched the back of her neck, she complained of pain. Seems she'd had surgery in September for a herniated disk in her neck, and the crash had apparently aggravated that old injury. She hadn't noticed it at first, because her knee hurt worse.
I stuck around and helped the patrol immobilize her on a backboard and load her into the sled for the ride to the patrol room. I helped carry her skis and poles down the hill, and at the bottom, helped carry her into the patrol room.
Of course, now I'm feeling all "geeky" about the whole thing. I've been out of EMS long enough, that my only real obligation should be calling the ski patrol. But I couldn't bring myself to just ski on past an injured person. It felt good to be part of an EMS team again, if only for a few minutes. I wonder if I'll ever get this stuff out of my blood completely.
Of course, by the time we were done, my wife and girls were waiting for me, wondering what the heck I was doing up there (plainly visible to them) halfway up the mountain. My wife completely understood when I explained it to her, but I'm not so sure about my daughters. Hopefully I'll be able to explain it to them someday.
Toward the end of the afternoon, my wife took the girls over to the snow tubing park for a change of pace. I opted to stay on my skis and try to get a few good runs in before the lifts closed. As I was riding up the lift for what I had decided would be my last run, I watched a woman take a pretty spectacular fall. She caught one of her ski edges funny, and lost her balance. Somehow, one of her poles ended up between her legs, and she crashed pretty hard. Someone on the lift asked her if she was okey, and she replied with a "No" that clearly conveyed her pain.
When I reached the top of the lift, I asked the lift attendant to call the ski patrol, and headed down the run. When I reached the woman, she was clutching her knee. She asked me to take off her ski, but when I tried to release the binding, it increased the pain in her knee, so I decided to wait for the ski patrol to arrive. Her pole was still between her legs, wedged between the ski and the ground, and I couldn't move that either. I knelt beside her and talked to her until the ski patrol arrived.
The first ski patroller to arrive began to assess her injuries, and when he touched the back of her neck, she complained of pain. Seems she'd had surgery in September for a herniated disk in her neck, and the crash had apparently aggravated that old injury. She hadn't noticed it at first, because her knee hurt worse.
I stuck around and helped the patrol immobilize her on a backboard and load her into the sled for the ride to the patrol room. I helped carry her skis and poles down the hill, and at the bottom, helped carry her into the patrol room.
Of course, now I'm feeling all "geeky" about the whole thing. I've been out of EMS long enough, that my only real obligation should be calling the ski patrol. But I couldn't bring myself to just ski on past an injured person. It felt good to be part of an EMS team again, if only for a few minutes. I wonder if I'll ever get this stuff out of my blood completely.
Of course, by the time we were done, my wife and girls were waiting for me, wondering what the heck I was doing up there (plainly visible to them) halfway up the mountain. My wife completely understood when I explained it to her, but I'm not so sure about my daughters. Hopefully I'll be able to explain it to them someday.
