[From Jim Winterer]
Just as the gang of thugs were wrapping things up late Saturday afternoon after a day of setting sections for an October trial at Duluth’s Spirit Mountain, they heard David McLuckie’s call for help: “I’ve broken my leg. It’s flopping back and forth. You’d better get an ambulance.”
Steve Ahlers grabbed his cell phone and called for help, which arrived in just 15 minutes or so. It was a long 15 minutes for David.
He was testing a champ line not far from the ledge used for Section Three of the World Round. His bike had gotten a little off line. He left the Montesa at the top of the ledge, but he had to bail and came down hard on his right leg.
Lucky for the ambulance crew, the section was not far from the Spirit Mountain Chalet. They could get the ambulance to within 100 yards or so of David. The ambulance crew, with the help of some Duluth firefighters, carried David up the hill on a stetcher and loaded him in the ambulance.
The emergency room doctors and nurses at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Duluth are no strangers to broken limbs. The ambulance crew said they make broken-bone runs to Spirit Mountain frequently in the winter, often half a dozen times a weekend. You could tell they knew what they were doing.
David had a compound fracture. Both the tibia and fibia were snapped right around the shin area. His Alpine Stars helped hold everything in place and keep things more or less organized.
David was a perfect patient. He remained calm, and made sure we knew where his wallet and medical insurance information was in his car. In the emergency room, he took lots of deep breaths as the nurses pulled the boot off this foot. He was happy they didn’t have to cut the boot off.
They did surgery in the middle of the night, and by Sunday morning he had some new titanium parts. Stewart and friend “Uncle” Bob made the four-hour trip from Thunder Bay and got there just as the surgeon was wrapping things up.
The doctor said it was clean break and the leg is expected to heal well. However, today everything hurts more than just a little, and probably will for some days yet. Last report is that David and Stewart will probably head home Tuesday or Wednesday. They will put a more permanent cast on David’s leg up in Canada. Things are too swollen to do that just yet.
David had purchased a special short-term medical insurance policy, as he always does when he leaves Canada for a few days. They have to do that because the Canadian health care system doesn’t provide very good coverage for citizens when outside their country. Whew, did that four-day policy come in handy. Give the kid about a million gold stars for doing that!
Meanwhile, David is now in Room 4253 of the St. Mary’s Medical Center in Duluth. The direct number to his room is (218) 786-7429. Unless you know David well, it might be better to send him an e-mail rather than call, since he’s pretty sleepy. His e-mail address is cnbpiper@yahoo.com. I’m SURE he’d like to get e-mails from you when he gets back home.
Stewart is keeping vigil in David’s hospital room, and as you can imagine, he’s telling everyone his collection of sheep jokes and driving everyone batty.
Webmaster’s Note: Here’s a photo of David playing the bagpipes at the August Haggis. And of course, this memorable photo (HUGE file!) of him in Stink Gully at the last event. – Griff
