Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
alina
Trad climber
CA
|
|
|
Topic Author's Original Post - May 3, 2016 - 01:33pm PT
|
It's been six months since my accident. I couldn't write about it right after. I needed time to dull some of the edges of the memory. I want to share it now because I hope we can learn from what happened.
I took a sixty foot factor two fall on Braille Book. It was on Halloween. Our plan for the day was to "run up" this climb and then do some night climbing in costume. Our agenda set my approach, which was probably too casual. I have done Braille Book twice before. I love offwidth and chimney climbing, so this climb never felt too hard.
My partner, Ben, was a strong but relatively new climber. This was his fifth climbing trip. He was belaying me on the start of the third pitch -- about 280 feet off the ground -- when I made my mistake. I was prioritizing moving quickly and I hate rope drag... so I had no gear in. I should have clipped the anchor, but it was way to the right of the route, so I didn't. Once I got to the crack, I saw it was too big for gear. I went up and wanted to move into the chimney to feel more secure. But I was wearing a small backpack with shoes and water. I found a stance and decided to take it off and hang it from my belay loop. I normally never do this without a piece near by. But I didn't have gear, so I did. I should have down-climbed. I was 12-15 feet above Ben at this point.
As I was taking off my backpack, it slipped. I instinctively grabbed for it and threw myself off balance. I started to fall. The last thing I remember is deflecting some rock with my hand. I passed out for maybe 15 seconds. When I came to, I was way below the start of the pitch. I was against the rock and the rope was going from next to my belay loop down to between my legs and then behind me, back up to Ben. I have no idea what happened. I wasn't bleeding or scratched or bruised. Thankfully, the route was quite steep below me.
I couldn't move my legs. I thought I broke both of them. The rope started to hurt, so I used the rock to slowly flip myself upside down and free it. Once the rope was running straight up, I couldn't get myself back upright. I was dangling, my legs were useless, and I couldn't get a good hold on the rock. I yelled to Ben to lower me slowly. I pawed along the wall to try to get my torso up as he was lowering my hips. But that was also too hard.
Ben lowered me all the way to the start of the second pitch. By that time, another party had come up. The leader set up his rope to lower me to the ground. I remember struggling to stay on the ledge. It was so hard just to set up on his rope and move into position to get lowered again. Everything hurt. A member of the other party rapelled with me to keep me upright and away from the rock.
Finally, I was on the ground. Ben had yelled for help and there was a group of climbers waiting for me. They set up a spot with all their layers for me to lie down on and covered me with their jackets. The pain in my back was immediate at that point. I was shaking with cold. YOSAR had been called. The rescue party was hiking up so all I had to do was wait. I remember somebody found my little backpack next to the start of the route. I had my med kit in there, including oxycodone (which I always carry for this kind of worse-case scenario.)
I asked for the pain meds, but YOSAR instructed my friends not to give it to me. The meds would interfere with a proper assessment when they got there. I remember trying to argue for why I should be allowed to take them: my head didn't hurt, my neck didn't feel stiff, I definitely didn't have any head trauma, please let me take the pills. It was a long wait for the YOSAR medic.
About two hours later, I was loaded onto a gurney and swaddled into some sort of inflatable padding. I remember watching the helicopter blades as it hovered above me. The thing was impressively close to Higher Cathedral Rock. A rope came down and I was clipped in. They lifted me into the helicopter and took me to El Cap Meadow.
The reason I dropped much more than 25-30 feet -- twice the rope I had out -- was my partner had a very hard time stopping me after I fell on his ATC. The rope was yanked out of his hands and he was pulled into the anchor. He scrambled to stop me and was only successful once the rope somehow wrapped itself around his upper arm. The friction burned through his jacket, two layers, and took off a bunch of skin.
All together, I fractured the L1 vertebra in my spine, badly broke my thumb, broke my scapula, fractured some ribs, and got a pneumothorax. Thankfully I was wearing a helmet: there are some dents in it, but none in my head.
From the meadow I was flown to Merced and from Merced to Stanford Hospital, where I got an operation to re-open the vertebra and fuse my spine above and below the fracture for stability.
I'm still in a wheelchair. Doctor's say non-committal things like "every patient is different" if you ask them if you're going to walk again. Basically, there is a chance I will and a chance I won't. I am dedicated to making the best possible recovery I can. I think I'll walk again. I work hard towards that goal every day. I've regained a huge amount of function already.
I'm a grad student and the medical expenses have been a huge financial burden. I'm currently struggling to afford by rehab. If you're interested in reading about my recovery or want to help by donating to my rehab, please go to my blog: http://smallrestlesshuman.com
I'm still trying to process what happened to me. My questions: as anyone else had/heard of a similar injury? Given there were no marks from the rock on me, I think it was the impact of the big factor two fall, transmitted through the harness, that broke my back. After the rope arrested my fall, I think I swung into the rock and fractured my ribs/scapula. Is this a reasonable conclusion? What else could have happened? Does the weird orientation of the rope when I came to have anything to do with my injury?
Lastly, I want to thank the climbers who worked all day to help with my rescue and take care of my partner. And I want to thank YOSAR for easily getting be out of a steep gully far from the road.
|
|
labrat
Trad climber
Erik O. Auburn, CA
|
|
Hope you continue to heal. Thank you for the report of what happened. Good thoughts going your way.
Erik
|
|
Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
|
|
Alina,
Thank you for coming back to the point where you are able to write about it.
Spinal cord injuries are so tough because the nerves in the central nervous system don't regenerate.
So recovery is more about finding ways to adapt around the injury - using what you still have.
I was lucky and mine (January 1978 groundfall) was just a bruise to the cord,
but I experience its permanent limitations every day.
|
|
crankster
Trad climber
No. Tahoe
|
|
Falling happens so fast...it's hard to know exactly what happened or how injuries occur. I'm not sure you'll ever know.
You're young and strong and, hopefully, you will walk again. I'm sharing your blog with friends.
Best of luck.
|
|
alina
Trad climber
CA
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - May 3, 2016 - 02:00pm PT
|
Clint,
I'm lucky in that my injury, at L1, is below where the central nervous system terminates. All my damage was to the peripheral nerves. So, theoretically, they have the potential to regenerate.
|
|
mtnyoung
Trad climber
Twain Harte, California
|
|
Thank you for coming back to the point where you are able to write about it.
Yes.
Good luck as your recovery continues. Write more and keep us up to date?
|
|
SC seagoat
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, Moab, A sailboat, or some time zone
|
|
I hope for your continued recovery! You have been through so much. And all the things I wouldn't have thought about...like the car! Good luck learning to drive with hand controls and getting a PT regime that speeds your recovery!
Susan
|
|
brotherbbock
climber
Alta Loma, CA
|
|
Wow glad you are relatively ok.
Heal fast....good healing vibes sent your way.
|
|
overwatch
climber
Arizona
|
|
I was against the rock and the rope was going from my belay loop down to between my legs and then behind me, back up to Ben.
You were tied into your belay loop?
Glad you are here to tell the tale
|
|
micronut
Trad climber
Fresno/Clovis, ca
|
|
Alina thank you for your sincere post and thoughtful analysis of the accident. I hope you make a full and reasonably fast recovery. I am in medicine and am amazed at how differently people heal. From being in my profession I fully believe that my best healers are my most positive patients. I cannot prove it empirically but I am not alone in the thought that there is a physiologic parallel to the soft/hard tissue healing process and the cellular mechanisms we see in patients with fantastic attitudes. I see it daily in the surgeries I do and am amazed at wound repair in my really positive patients, athletes especially. Please continue writing and sharing with the climbing tribe. It can be cathartic during your down days, and you're sure to have them. Surround yourself with good people and wake up every day with a readiness to heal. Again, thanks for sharing and keep your chin up.
Scott
|
|
Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
|
|
Alina,
My fracture was at T12, immediately above L1.
So we both have fracture injuries in the Conus medullaris (T12-L2) region.
I believe it is more in the Cauda equina (L2-S5) region where there is some chance of regeneration.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinal_cord_injury#Conus_medullaris_and_cauda_equina_syndromes
I was very fortunate because the neurological effects of mine were very minor - L5-S1 on the left side.
Also I can pee, don't have ongoing pain, I can sleep fine, etc.
I forget sometimes how fortunate I am.
Wendy Ong, whose injury severed one side of the L4 trunk, can't flex her left quad but has worked around it (this is not a complete list of her injuries).
However, she has ongoing pain and difficulty sleeping as a result.
http://wendyong.org/
Some of the original threads in November 2015:
http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/2711051/gear-left-on-Braille-Book
http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/2715105/cost-of-yosemite-helicopter-rescue
I read through your blog, and it's great you are getting out on a bike,
and can use your legs quite a bit.
Any way to get outside and get exercise is a big deal.
Wendy's choice of car from when she was in a wheelchair was the Honda Fit.
My wife has a Honda Element and it's clearly handy in many ways, too.
|
|
John M
climber
|
|
I am very grateful that you are recovering and will pray for your continued recovery. Keep us posted please. I love your good spirit. I went through a number of illnesses that kept me from getting out like I like. So I relate to what your wrote about having to view things from the car, which isn't the way that we are used to experiencing nature. I am so glad that you are able to get out more and more.
...
Thanks Clint for posting about Wendy. She skis double black diamond on one ski with outriggers. Just have to say wow.
|
|
High Fructose Corn Spirit
Gym climber
|
|
Incredible account, Alina.
Best wishes for your continuing progress.
Please keep posting.
|
|
pud
climber
Sportbikeville & Yucca brevifolia
|
|
An incredible story of survival Alina.
I hope your recovery continues and you regain full function of your legs. I think the odds are with you.
Being young is certainly an advantage.
Please keep us posted.
btw, your blog is awesome!
|
|
aspendougy
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
|
|
Alina,
I am a lap swimmer, and I run into lots of people with injuries who have come back well, by including water sports in their recovery. You can start out walking in shoulder deep water, then gradually go to more and more shallow water, until you can walk on dry land. Also, regular swimming.
|
|
Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
|
|
When I saw your last update email with the blog, I thought of posting it here, as it is a place where many climbers look and IMO some could be very interested to see the progress. Some maybe could relate or be reminded of the risks we casually face. Didn’t feel like me posting it publicly was a good idea and glad you did it yourself! There are a few idiots here but overall I think the climbing community is fairly supportive and will benefit the healing process. Especially psychological. When you have others to share your happiness and frustrations with, it is easier to digest them...hope you do a lot of cool sh#t while recovering!
|
|
thebravecowboy
climber
The Good Places
|
|
Your optimism is exemplary. Keep up that positive stoke! You WILL get back out to those places and things you clearly love.
Thank you for sharing your story - a good reminder that our casual fun still requires utmost vigilance.
|
|
blahblah
Gym climber
Boulder
|
|
Alina,
I fractured two vertebrae in a climbing fall in December 2014; mostly repaired by an s1-L5 spinal fusion (can't say "good as new," but obviously your much more serious injury puts things in perspective).
I don't know the exact mechanism of injury--I was caught by the rope, but landed on a sloping ledge so it may have just been the impact; there was also rockfall that may have struck me. I had a loss of consciousness and only hazing memory of the accident.
Wishing you best outcome and recovery from your injuries. You will have a lot to deal with, perhaps for the rest of your life, but I'm sure you can still accomplish amazing things.
|
|
alina
Trad climber
CA
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - May 3, 2016 - 05:13pm PT
|
Thanks for all the encouragement and the wishes for fast recovery.
Thanks to those who shared their story.
Susan: yes, hard controls are crazy! I just had my assessment/lesson today. I drove for the first time in six months. Can’t wait until they’re finally installed in my car.
overwatch: oops, that’s written in a confusing way. I was tied in the usual way. I meant “next to my belay loop.” Fixed in the original post.
micronut: Thanks for the encouragement! I’ve had doctors tell me so many difficult things. Statements like: healing is done after the first year; all the function you get back after one year is all that you’re ever going to get. I wish more of them would just let my optimism run wild. But I understand why they try to manage expectations.
Clint: I’m strange and lucky in that imaging showed that my Conus modullaris terminates above my L1 (I’m an outlier), so the fracture was below it. I got all my bowel/bladder function back already. I have some chronic pain and some difficulty sleeping… but I’m dealing.
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!