Broken Leg & Broken Hearts
I’ve spent the whole morning crying, and knowing that these next few days are going to be near impossible to deal with.
On Saturday, the one day of the week all of the specialists at this camp get, we were going to go on a day-long lazy river trip. Enjoying everyone’s company, laughing , smiling, soaking in the sun. It didn’t turn out like that though -- most people had already arrived at the river, waiting for me to deliver a car full of about 10 people. Everyone who had gone tubing decided that they wanted to leave their things in my car, including money, phones, clothing, backpacks, the whole nine yards. We paid for our tickets, climbed onto the pontoon boat that was going to take us up the river. The people I was most excited to spend the day with was Terone, Ben and Tom. Totally stoked for the day, we had coolers full of beer and Mike’s Hard, some people bringing vodka. None of us had started drinking, we were going to wait until we started floating down the river for the drinking to begin. As soon as the pontoon got to shore, Ben and Tom jumped out of the boat. The water looked incredibly deep, so they jumped with a lot of excitement and spontaneity, but it didn’t end as well as we had hoped.
Ben is a part of the Royal Marines back home, meaning he knew that as soon as he hit the water, that he’d need to get ready to roll. Tom, however, was not that lucky. He landed, and immediately he could not stand up. He knew something was wrong, and told everyone to drag him out of the water. We battle wrapped him with a large branch and a tee-shirt to stabilize his leg, got him back on the boat and drove him back. I got my jeep onto the beach, threw him in the back of the truck and drove to the emergency room with Ben making sure that Tom is still okay in the back. It was about a 15 minute drive to the emergency room, but they let us pull into the ambulance bay so we could get him on a stretcher and into the room as soon as possible.
When we got into the room, the nurse was too impressed with his battle wrap and left it on until he needed x-rays. We’ve come to find out that he has two broken bones in his ankle and a torn ligament that’s going to require surgery. Here’s the few catches though -- he’s originally from the UK, and he’s a LIFEGUARD here at camp. As soon as we found out this news of his broken ankle, we called the directors of camp. I start getting calls from everyone on the tubing trip -- they’re all accusing me of stealing their money and their belongings, even though they know that I’ve taken care of their friend who’s BROKEN. A few hours later we were dismissed from the hospital, Tom in a cast from his toes to his knee. We dropped him off at the health center, everyone FLOODS my car so they can get all of their stuff, realizing that -- surprise -- I haven’t stolen any of their things.
Yesterday, we found out from his insurance company that they’d rather him fly home before they have the surgery done here. Today, his flight leaves O’hare at 5:30 so he can go back home. Saying goodbye to him today was absolutely heartbreaking. I bent down to say goodbye in the dining hall and started crying immediately. Watching everyone saying goodbye... None of us could handle it... I’m really not ready for him to leave. Watching his car leave for the airport is going to be too hard, and I think I might just happen to take a nap for the rest of my life.
