A nightmare of a day.

Yesterday, and quite possibly today, has been a nightmare for my little corner of the world. My neighbour Hans (In the picture above with his wife Janette) was scraping the 3rd story windows on the back of his large farmhouse. He fell off the ladder, head first it looks like, onto a brick patio. He was outside alone, so when his wife noticed he hadn't come inside for a little while (maybe 1/2 an hour), she went out to look and found him. She called 911 emergency and the firetrucks and ambulances arrived. As soon as they got there, they realized they would need to medivac him (with a helicopter). We live 18 minutes to a small hospital and about an hour from the "good" hospital in the city. Bjorn, his son, came running over ( I was outside by this point after seeing an ambulance arrive at my neighbors) and yelled for me to come help catch their horse, so the helicopter could land. Well a horse who has just seen fire trucks, ambulances and all kinds of strange people arrive at her farm is in no mood to be caught quickly, so that didn't work. They quickly looked around for another place to land the helicopter debating our riding ring (too sandy) finally choosing the field right in front of our house as a safe spot. It is crazy seeing a helicopter land so close to your house! My horses were a little freaked out and galloping around their field.

It took them well over an hour to move him from the position he had landed in, to a stretcher, to the ambulance, to the helicopter next door. He was unconscious the whole time. When they would move him he would stop breathing, so it would take a while to get him stabilized enough to move him slightly again. Such a scary time, with basically nothing his family and friends could do to help. Bjorn busied himself trying to find their 3 cats and get them safely into the house. I mostly sat with Janette and listened to her talk, or checked on the horses to make sure none of them freaked out too badly. The response team really knew what their jobs were and worked together well. Everyone doing their roles from directing traffic to hooking up oxygen, to cleaning up the mountain of garbage left behind once he was moved. The only signs left of the horror was a patch of blood staining the bricks from his head and the crushed grass from the stretcher being wheeled along.

Once Hans was in the hands of the medics and flying on his way to the hospital Janette and Bjorn went to pack an overnight bag and to make a few calls, then Ian drove them into the city to the hospital. Janette called last night and the news was not good. Drs had told Janette that they weren't very hopeful.

Our other Neighbors went in last night to see if they could be of some support. They are back home, so we are waiting to hear if they have any news as they said they would call us this morning. This might be one of those cases where no news is good news.

UPDATE:

Spoke with our neighbors who went in to the hospital last night. Bad news. Janette is waiting for her 2 other sons (was still trying to reach one of them) to get here from out west. The neurosurgeon said that in his 20 years experience that he has never seen someone with this degree of injury survive. Janette was apparently talking about taking him off life support and organ donation, but is waiting until her sons arrive, if he makes it that long. She and her youngest son are spending this time with him in the hospital. My heart is breaking for them all.

UPDATE #2:

Hans passed away on Friday, 6 days after the accident. The family is planning a "celebration of his life" in September. I was told his wish was to have his remains scattered in the rocky mountains. Very very sad news:(