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Mike
Stavro
State Ranger, Off Highway Vehicle Division
Hollister, California
"I
didn't know Myles then but I sure do now.
I
can still see the motorcycle stuffed into the tree…The first thing
I notice are all these dead branches pushed away where he was lying.
Myles had crashed through poison oak! This was not going to be easy.
I ended up with the stuff all over my arms-it took about a month
to get over it. I heard he got it too.
We
start with the right leg. I start to take off the motorcycle boot
but he said to cut it off. He was an easy person to work with. He
knew exactly what was going on. We cut the motorcycle pants up the
side to get to the femur. We have a splint we use on femur breaks
to hold the bone ends apart. With someone muscular like Myles, the
two broken ends would be pulled together by the muscles and the
bone ends would just grind together.
After
I cut off the felt boot and pants I applied a vacuum splint. This
is a large vinyl piece that wraps around the leg and then we pump
it. It acts like a very small raft…it sucks down tight against the
leg to immobilize it.
I
look up and see the helicopter crew…they start doing their thing.
The nurse had the IV in and we rolled him on his side to get him
onto the board…we strapped him in. We handed him up the embankment
and tried to load him into the Suburban. Myles was so tall that
his feet were sticking out the back. The nurse sat on the rear bumper
and held the door open with her foot to keep the door from slamming
on his feet. We drove to the helicopter, loaded him into the back
end and he was on his merry way.
He
was such a great guy. In fact, about a week later a little guy and
his dad came up to the ranger station.
'Was
there a motorcycle accident last week?'
'Yeah,
a guy broke both his legs.'
'Was
that Myles?'
'Yeah,
do you know Myles?'
'Everybody
knows Myles! Is he OK?' "
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