Prayers, Smoke, Good Vibes

B

Ben Arown-Awile

Banned
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Aug 29, 2001
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Please send some my daughter's way. She is in the hospital in Honduras. She was on a remote trail on an island off the coast of Honduras and fell off a cliff into the sea. She wasn't too badly hurt, except for a shattered knee. She was able to get herself a mile or so to a house where the caretaker had a radio and called for help.

They took her to the mainland where she is in the local public hospital awaiting surgery. I can't contact her because she can't get to a phone, and I can't communicate with the hospital staff because I don't speak Spanish.

Luckily, a guy who drives a boat for the local government on the island, speaks English so they assigned him to help her and he calls us to let us know what's going on.

There's not much we can do for her from here, but Prayers and Good Thoughts couldn't hurt.
 
Prayers sent for your daughter, Ben.

:) She will return safely home in due course.
 
Smoke already on the way for UB, but I'll add another for your daughter.
 
Consider it done. Glad to hear she wasn't hurt any worse. Not that a shattered knee is anything to sneeze at, but it'll heal. :)
 
Going up from KY as well. :) Your daughter sounds like she's got a good outlook and attitude- you must have done something right. :cool:
 
I remember when the kid couldn't even walk let alone fall down a cliff in Honduras. Special Tibetan incense smoke on the way.

Hang in Ben and Marsha, too. As all of us have learned by now, "nobody ever said it would be easy."
 
On their way, Ben. :)

I raised two daughters. I will forever be vulnerable. I wouldn't change a thing.

Kis
 
Bill Martino said:
...I remember when the kid couldn't even walk let alone fall down a cliff in Honduras...
Click to expand...
So do I. Seems like just last week.

When she was younger she injured her leg and needed a full leg cast. A few days after the operation she couldn't stand going without a shower any longer so I took a big plastic leaf bag and duct tape and put a waterproof covering over the cast.

She said that was the best shower she ever had, but removing the duct tape from her upper inner thigh was more painful than the operation.
 
Prayers offered from Georgia tonight.

I know the love of a father for his little girl. I have one too.
 
Smoke form some Japanese incesne (Thanx DIJ!) goin up. My daughter's only 22 mos, but not fer long. She's already a daredevil!

I bet you oculd find a spanish translator/interpreter who could work with you on the phone, if you need to get a message through...sounds like that might be handled on their side, tho.

Keith
 
We were finally able to talk to our daughter in Honduras.

She transferred to another hospital with better facilities and the specialists she needs. She now has her own room with a phone. It's a private hospital and costs about ten times as much as the government facility, but by US standards it's still a real bargain, and there are no termites crawling over her at night, no feces stains on the walls, and no dead bodies in the hallways like at the other place.

Here's what she told us happened.

She got too close to the edge of the cliff and it collapsed sending her down about 50 feet into the ocean. Her hands are messed up as she tried to grab rocks and shrubs and anything she could on the way down.

About halfway down she heard a crack and a crunch in her leg and she knew something had broken. When she landed, her leg was turned around the opposite way, so she grabbed it and twisted it back. She was about to black out but knew if she did she would probably die, so she screamed and yelled at herself to keep from fainting.

It was getting dark, and since she couldn't walk, she decided to swim up the coast. She swam with her backpack on her head because she didn't want to loose her notes of the work she was doing. She swam about a mile until she came to a beach where she saw a couple of guys.

She tried to signal to them, but they didn't see her, so she dragged herself over the coral and up onto the beach. She eventually got their attention and they had a radio and called the harbor rescue patrol.

That's when Mack, the EMT who drove the boat, the island equivalent of an ambulance, arrived. He has been taking care of her ever since getting her in to the hospital, taking care of her stuff, and keeping in contact with us. He even co-signed to get her into the hospital and to get the treatment started because Seph didn't have enough money. He has really been her guardian angel.

Tomorrow they take some special X-rays to see the extent of damage. It looks like she has a broken tibia as well as a broken patella and internal tissue and cartilage damage that the special X-ray will help diagnose.

She's not planning on coming home right away. She has a couple of weeks left on her project so after her operation she's planning on going back to the island on crutches to finish up.

She's a pretty tough woman. When she was younger she was a lifeguard and also worked with Rock Med, the emergency medical service at rock concerts like the Dead etc. These kinds of experiences helped mold her and in this case probably saved her life.
 
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