Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
TGT
Social climber
So Cal
|
|
Good idea!
You made the front page of The Blaze.
|
|
Heisenberg
Trad climber
RV, middle of Nowehere
|
|
VegasClimber and to all
St. Marys Medical Center
Grand Junction, Colorado.
|
|
vôo
climber
Denver, CO
|
|
Hi Ammon,
I hope you get back to 100% as quickly as possible.
|
|
Vegasclimber
Trad climber
Las Vegas, NV.
|
|
Thanks. Looks like I have a long drive ahead of me tomorrow then haha.
|
|
ElCapPirate
Big Wall climber
Reno, Nevada
|
|
Update:
Sitting here in the hospital pecking away on my iPhone. I wasn't thinking straight when I let my friend drive off with my laptop. Had two surgery prosedures back to back and a bunch of visitors today, one of which was Charles Cole from Five Ten... speaking of, do I get my own shoe now? I was wearing the Ivo Knivo's, they should make the Slam'n Ammon's, haha.
Anyway, the trend after every surgery so far is, "it went better than expected". The big one is on Monday where they are going to plate, screw or rod my tibia and possibly graph the flap patch (aiiigh), on the exit wound. Then a few more cleaning surgeries after that. As long as infection doesn't swamp my ship. It's going to be a long road to recovery but I'll be back at it, soon enough.
Thanks for all the positivity and well wishes. I feel all the love from my hospital bed and am truly grateful to have such an amazing tribe of friends in my corner, rooting for me.
|
|
WBraun
climber
|
|
Fuking brutal dude ......
Hang in there Ammon, everyone is rooting for you ......
|
|
Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
|
|
Man, all that hardware looks crazy familiar. Including the wound vac in the eliptical cut. You'll have a nice scar from that baby but that wound vac works like a charm.
Call you soon and hang in there Hermano!
JL
|
|
neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
|
|
hey there say, ammon...
thanks for keeping us updated, so we don't OVER-worry, :)
prayers for no infection, of course, and:
where, pray-tell, do we send get well cards, etc...?
:)
|
|
Vegasclimber
Trad climber
Las Vegas, NV.
|
|
Great to talk to you tonight man, it's awesome to hear you in such good spirits. Will see ya tomorrow!
|
|
huberbuam
Big Wall climber
berchtesgaden
|
|
Hey Ammon, never wrote in a Forum, but now i have to! i hear over the ocean that you were harder than a rock!!!!!!!!! I am sooo happy that you still there! It´s like the hardest wall you have to climb now but i am shure you will make it and i will be so happy if we rope up in the future again. sending you lots of energy over the ocean from thomas (Bavaria) ((((-;
|
|
KP Ariza
climber
SCC
|
|
Ammon, best wishes and happy you'll be okay.
Never met you, but everything Iv'e heard and read about you has understated what a f*#king champion you are. How you were able to direct, film, narrate, and star in that "raw footage" (no pun) boggles my mind. Heal up well man.
|
|
ElCapPirate
Big Wall climber
Reno, Nevada
|
|
Hey Ammon, never wrote in a Forum, but now i have to! i hear over the ocean that you were harder than a rock!!!!!!!
Sorry I brought you out of lurking status, Thomas. Haha! Love you bro!
(Copy and pasted from Basejumper.com)
Hey guys, Ammon here from the hospital bed.
You are correct Nick three tourniquets were applied. Every injury is going to take different actions but I'm not a professional in the medical field. It was brutally obvious what I must do to save my life. I was losing tons of blood FAST and I knew that if I didn't apply a tourniquet that I was going to bleed out within minutes. At first I was going to use my lines but quickly thought the bridle would be way better and not cut into my skin as much.
I was 100% prepared to become an amputee. Blood was squirting five feet in all directions. The video was recorded after I stopped most of the bleeding. I pulled up my bridal wrapped it around my leg just above the opening exit wound and tied a truckers hitch. Before I tied the hitch I slid a nearby stick under the top piece of webbing. After the knot was tied I propelled the stick until I couldn't stand the pain anymore. Then I tried to straighten the ankle and elevated my leg above my heart.
I yelled down to my buddies to let them know I just lost my foot and could possibly bleed out and needed a helicopter ASAP. I knew it was going to be a while before they were going to reach me a few hundred feet above the road. The cliff is very rugged and I knew it was going to take some time to get to me.
There was an EMT and an highly competent climber on the load and a paramedic and another climber/EMT joins the rescue efforts. It took about 40 minutes for them to reach me and they drilled bolts and had lines fixed before the local SAR arrived on the scene. They helped place another tourniquet on my thigh because I was still dripping blood. The helicopter had to to land down the street because there is power lines directly below the exit, hence the name of the jump "Electric Chair".
SAR arrived and with the ropes in place they just had to ascend the ropes with a litter cage and their rescue kit. They dumped drugs into me, just enough to not kill me, haha. Applied a 3rd tourniquet just above the one I had placed and got me in the litter. The descent was treacherous with loose flakes and falling rocks. It took just over an hour to get me to the road. They got me in an ambulance, got me to the helicopter and flew me to St. Mary's in grand Junction. The entire time period was just over 4 hours from accident to ER.
The docs told me that the tourniquet time was somewhere around 4 hours before you were going to lose the limb. I lost nearly 3 pints of blood and came super close to bleeding out and and losing my life. So, obviously the 15 minute release of the tourniquet would have killed me. But, like I said, in its case it was completely obvious that we just kept it on and sacrificed the foot/leg. Those that have seen the video can see it in my face, I absolutely was prepared for the sacrifice to save my life.
In the morning, I woke up and was very surprised to see my foot still attached. A huge smile spread across my face as I wiggled my toes. I still have to fight off infection but it's looking very good that I will recover and climb and jump again, soon enough.
The docs say that my calm reaction and quick thinking with the tourniquet was the the main factor for surviving, at all. If I would have freaked out my heart rate would have sky rocketed and would have lost more blood. I didn't have much left to lose before the end was near, as it was.
Also, if the lines weren't fixed saving hours I might not have made it either. I will be forever grateful for my fast acting friends, SAR and the flight crew.
It's amazing how fast sh#t hit the fan and hope my tale can save someone else in the future.
Lots of love, Ammon
Yaaaaaaaar!!!
PS: I thought I was recording when I exited but alas, I actually turned it off while it was on in the first place. So, no gnarly bouncing POV
|
|
roy
Social climber
NZ -> SB,CA -> Zurich
|
|
Wow that is brutal. Heal up well and keep up your amazing spirit.
Cheers, Roy
|
|
PhilG
Trad climber
The Circuit, Tonasket WA
|
|
Ammon:
Incredible story, mate!
Heal quickly.
Phil
|
|
Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
|
|
"plate, screw or rod" Could be the name of a route~
Glad it's going as good as it is. Respect for keeping the spirit up through it all
Bless!
Baba
|
|
philo
Trad climber
Is that light the end of the tunnel or a train?
|
|
Ammon you have shown great courage throughout this epic gnarfest. I can hardly believe your foot was saved let alone that you could even wiggle your toes the next day. Best wishes and positive vibes to you. You are a hard man pirate if ever there was one.
|
|
youri
climber
|
|
All the best vibes from Montreal.
|
|
BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
|
|
Ammon has a strong mind. Exceptional even among his peers. I've never seen anything like his calm in that video. That is one for the ages. Don't go giving that video out for free!
I'll send you some goodies in the mail. PM me your address, or I will just send it to the hospital.
|
|
susan peplow
climber
Joshua Tree, CA
|
|
Not being a huge fan of blood and gore Russ suggested I not watch the video. Ultimately, I saw snapshots of the ankle posted elsewhere anyways.
Ammon, I'm super glad to hear your surgeries are going well and you're wiggling your toes. It was heartbreaking to watch your video, even without knowing you personally it was easy to read the fear and disappointment on your face.
Yet your fast actions, not panicing and having a good team of friends to make things happen is really an incredible story and one we are so happy you are with us to tell. Here's to hoping the goodness continues with no infection and successful recovery.
Best wishes and for us girls, post a picture of you & brother Gabe should he visiting :)
~Susan
|
|
the Fet
climber
Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La
|
|
If I had to go through something like this I'd be stoked to have someone like Largo giving me the beta on what to expect.
Well, that didn't go so good.
Understatement of the century. I'm sure that sentence will come up in my mind whenever something goes really bad.
When things do go bad it is cool the see everyone swing into action and do what needs to be done and have the outcome be SO much better than it could have been.
Thanks for sharing the video and updates. It's really gnarly but it's cool the see the human spirit and capabilities rise to the occasion when needed.
Wishing you the best of luck to go along with all the great work that was done and is being done.
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!