Broken Arm Accident

Broken Arm Accident

I have told this story so many times since the accident that I feel like it needs a blog entry:

I have been at home for almost 2 weeks with a broken arm and have been attempting to catch up on my blog posts from Europe.  Now, I think I should share with you why I have had so much time to type.

This event happened on Friday, September 2, 2016. Katherine, Andrew, and I were driving up to our elk hunting area for another weekend of scouting and camping.  The actual hunt does not start until October 1, so we have been using all this time to scout the area and look for the animals to know where they are, and how they travel.

Bull elk just off of Parsnip Peak

The area is four hours north of Las Vegas, and to maximize time in the field, we head up after work on Fridays.  The H3 was fully loaded with gear and food for the three day Labor Day holiday.  We were making great time, joking around in the truck as we always do.  Alan and Tammy decided to join us camping and were ahead of us by at least one hour in their new Dodge Power Wagon pulling a camper.   We hoped they would have things set up at the campsite by the time we got there.



I was warned by Andrew and Tommy weeks before that there is a new washout in the road to the camp, just off the main dirt road that runs by the alfalfa farm.  On the way up Alan texted me another warning about a washout.  "Okay we got this," I thought and we pressed on.

Driving down Parsnips Road 151, at 9:50 pm at night, we passed over two washes.  "No big deal, I thought." After clearing the first two washes, the road flattened out and looked really nice, so I proceeded at 20 to 25 miles an hour.  Then, all of the sudden we crested a hump in the road and a giant trench instantly appeared.  I slammed the brakes, which did not help, and we pummeled into the trench at full speed.  I think all I said was, "Here we go!"

The accident scene.  I used the map creator tool on my car insurance website.  Spot on!

The next thing I remember is that the truck was still running and the radio was on playing some delightful samba music.  I asked if everyone was okay, and looked down to see my left wrist and arm severely mangled.  Andrew and Katherine kept saying that they were fine, but in a wreck you really have to check very closely for injuries you might not notice at first in the heat of the moment.  Katherine looked over and saw my arm, then I grabbed my left hand fingers with my right hand and pulled as hard as I could to reset my left wrist.  I felt nothing and managed to "kind of" get it back in place.

Next, I turned off the truck and we went outside to assess the situation.  Andrew and Katherine checked to see if anything fluids were leaking or pieces where hanging and then began picking up items from the overhead storage boxes as I paced around in a circle of pain.  It looked like the front right tire was blown off the rim, one Thule box was thrown off the roof, and the other was cracked in half side ways.  Surprisingly, the bumper did not make contact with the dirt and all the force of the sudden stop went directly into the tires.  The wash was about 3 feet wide and 2 1/2 feet deep.

We quickly realized how bad the situation was.  There was no cell phone reception and no one living in the near area.  I tried to contact Alan on the ham radio with no luck.  Camp was just at ahead of us 3 miles, and that seemed far this late at night with a broken truck and a broken arm.  Going the other direction is much worse because it is so desolate.  The next farm or campground might be 10 or more miles away.  Luckily, Andrew was able to send a text message to Alan's Delorme GPS text device standing on top of the H3.  The message said to turn on the ham radio!  I was able to make contact and tell Alan what happened to us.

Within 15 or 20 minutes Alan, Tammy, and the dogs showed up on the scene.  They had packed their camper and locked the campsite down, not knowing what was lie ahead for the evening.  Alan winched the H3 out of the ditch while everybody else organized the scene.  I laid down in the passenger's seat of his truck while this was all going on.  Alan somehow repaired the H3's front right tire by kicking it back on, and then put more air in it with his compressor.  It now seemed somewhat drivable since nothing was hanging off.  Tammy, Katherine, Andrew, and both dogs crammed into the H3 with all the gear from the boxes and drove it slowly to camp hoping the messed up steering would hold up.  Alan and I headed to the emergency room in Caliente.

Caliente is one hour from our camp along bumpy dirt roads, which made for an unpleasant ride cradling my broken arm.  We ran into state police on the main road in Pioche.  They asked if we wanted an ambulance, and we said no.  We kept driving down the road to Caliente, but now on pavement, thank goodness.

Caliente is a small rural town in Nevada that, luckily, has an ER.  Alan called 911 to make sure that the ER was open and someone was there.  Upon entering, we were greeted by the doctor, a nurse, and an x-ray technician.  I was taken care of quickly.  The bottom line is that they took x-rays, put me in a splint, and said I needed more work done.  Unfortunately, I would have to go to Las Vegas for the correct help.  "Oh, joy," I thought.  "What do we do now?"  The doc said that there was no reason to drive to Vegas that night.  He said to go back to camp and drive back in the morning when the swelling comes down.  He gave me some pain meds and we were on our way.

Below is the video that Alan took in secret while the doctor explained the x-ray.  I am still a little out of it from all the excitement.

IMG_2590 from Katherine Mathiasmeier on Vimeo.

Back at the camp it was now 2:30 AM.  Katherine and Andrew were up and wanted to know the story from the ER.  I filled them in and then went to bed,  or at least tried to go to bed with my bum arm across my chest.  Little did I know it was still dislocated and my radial bone was fractured.

The next morning came very fast and we decided to try and get a U-Haul flatbed trailer from Caliente to tow the H3 back to Las Vegas.  Alan and Andrew left in the Dodge to take care of business.  Alan texted us status reports along the way, and we received them on his DeLorme In-Reach Device.  Since the U-Haul place was closed for the holiday weekend, Alan had to call the emergency number on the door of the shop.   Luckily, he got through to the owner who then came to the shop.  He was out on a motorcycle ride, and due to the circumstances, made time for us.

The scene in the morning.  Notice Andrew's two second tent we shipped from Paris.

Katherine and Tammy even made it to one of the game cameras.  Go them!

Somehow we found a reason to celebrate.  Maybe it's because Tammy was going to get the night to herself and her puppies?

At about 2:00 pm Alan and Andrew showed up with the trailer and truck.   Everyone loaded the H3 onto the flatbed and secured it.  Plans were made for Tammy to stay with the camper and dogs while Alan shuttled the rest of us to Las Vegas.  We made it over the trench, only because some other outdoorsman filled it with logs, rocks, and dirt that morning.  The picture does not do it justice.  When I hit it, the ledge was a sheer 90° wall.  This is how flash flooding works out West!

The ride back to Las Vegas was full of fun and jokes; anything to take my mind off my left arm.  The Dodge Power Wagon is a new truck for Alan and Tammy, and I kept stating that on its maiden voyage it pulled the camper, winched my H3 out, and doubled as an ambulance.  Talk about getting your moneys worth!

Katherine and Andrew enjoying themselves.  Yes, Cheetos we're destroyed on this voyage.

We arrived in Las Vegas at our house, unloaded the H3, and Katherine took me to the ER.  This was my second ER visit so I thought I was getting good at it.  They took off the arm splint, took more x-rays, and re-splinted the arm.  That was it.  Wow!  My mission was now to find an orthopedic surgeon to get it all corrected.  When am I supposed to do that?  In a week or a few days?  It was Labor Day weekend and everything is closed.  All we could do was leave some voicemails at doctors' offices.

Back at home delivering the H3.

I say, chop it off at the forearm somewhere.

I made it through the next few days, although it was rough, thinking I was going to be seen on Tuesday.  Then I got a call.  The office the ER recommended me to said that they don't even do arms or wrists!  I said, "Can you please point me in the direction of help?"  I was recommended to another doctor, but they didn't have availablilty until  Thursday.  From the x-rays I knew that I needed surgery, and now we were coming up on a week since the injury.  I was able to be seen on Thursday and the doctor immediately scheduled me for surgery on Friday.  This meant it was one-week after the accident that I finally got my arm repaired.  That's one week off of school with nothing being done.  This is going to be a long ride I am sure.

How it looks now.

Since this is my first broken bone and I have never been in a real surgery,  I was terrified.  Previously, I had basal cell cancer removed from my arm, and that was not a pretty sight with the doctor.  I got all worked up, sweated profusely, and almost passed out.  I was getting ready to have full blown put you under reconstructive surgery that I was not mentally prepared for.

The morning of the surgery I got up, took a shower, popped a Valium the doctor prescribed after I told him how I would be, and we headed out.  Being chilled out, the whole visit went much smoother than I thought.  The anesthesia was not weird, and obviously I did not remember a thing.  Katherine was with me in the prep room, and in the recovery room immediately after it was done.

As I write this blog, I am thankful for many things. The accident could have been much worse, or Katherine and Andrew could have been hurt as well. We were extremely lucky to have Alan and Tammy there with us. If there was not another vehicle and friends on the scene this whole story would have turned out much different. The truck can be repaired, but my left arm is going to take some time. That is my banjo playing, guitar playing, trombone playing, piano playing, and left hand on top recorder hand!  Let's see where this goes in a few weeks.

We will be back!