This morning I got a call from Justin a BCP member.
Many of you know our buddy Tom from Powers Oregon. If you don't know Tom he is a good friend to us BCP members. When we fly to Powers, Tom has let us use his truck, brought us fire wood, barbecued for us and got a port O shitter. Tom fly's a ultra light.
Any way. Tom has been a professional tree topper for decades. Last Tuesday he fell about 70'. He got busted up pretty bad. Broken back, broke all his ribs on the left side, collapsed both lungs, black and blue all over and a really bad concussion. With Tom when he fell was Justin another member here on BCP.
They were in the coast range mountains. Tom pays for a helicopter ambulance membership. When they called for helicopter they declined to come because of weather. Justin is a pilot and told them it was VFR. They still said weather was not good enough. So they went to plan B, which was ground ambulance. They got Tom to Coos Bay and stabilized him, then helicoptered him to Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, which is a level 1 trauma center.
Toms son Travis is a paramedic in Coos Bay and he also responded to the accident to help. Once Tom got to OHSU they took him into surgery. They fused his lower back and thought about plating and screwing his ribs, they decided to leave the ribs. They were border line. Travis said it probably would have been better if they plated them, but the ribs will still heal.
Anyway. I went to OHSU and met up with Justin and had a nice 3 hour visit with Tom, Travis and Justin. Tom is still in a lot of pain but, they say in about 4 months he should be as good as new. It looks like Friday he will be headed to Coos Bay to a rehab center. He will be close to family.
THANKFULLY NO PARALYSIS!! Get well soon Tom!
Cheers...Rob
I hope he gets better and feels better soon...gonna be a long recovery I'm sure.
