re: Guy impaled with trekking pole hiked 6.5 hrs to avoid helicopter medical bill

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while his friends make kebab jokes

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Looking at his monitor, he was a little tachycardic,

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nurse brain kicks in immediately, checks himself, realizes nothing vital got hit and he can still breathe fine?says screw the helicopter bill and just starts hiking the entire 10 miles back down with the pole still stuck in him?

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For about an hour and 10 minutes on May 22, Gabe Joyes had an extremely critical task to perform. “I was just lying there holding my blood in,” he said, using his wadded up wind jacket to help contain the flow from an unusual leg injury.

The 36-year-old Lander, Wyoming, teacher suffered a puncture wound while solo trail running. As he jogged downhill with his folded trekking poles in hand, Gabe tripped. The full force of his body falling jabbed one of the pole points into his upper thigh, puncturing about an inch into his flesh.

Luckily, he had cellphone service and was able to call his wife, Jenny. After telling her to stay calm, Gabe said he needed search and rescue immediately. He then described his location not far from town at Sinks Canyon.

In the spirit of advising his students and other trail runners about his mishap, Gabe posted a blog about his accident, along with graphic photos. His detailed writing is at times unsettling, like his account of how bad the injury was.

“I took a look at myself and was horrified to see blood pulsating out of my shorts at a flow rate that did not even seem possible — something more akin to a bubbling faucet,” Gabe wrote.

The average amount of blood in a human body is around five liters. One doctor told Gabe he may have lost two to three liters.

“It was just absolutely shocking and horrifying,” Gabe said. “How do you lose blood that fast? I only had a few moments to panic. Then it was time to get down to business. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have a story to tell.”

Although his main task was trying to staunch the bleeding, at the same time he is the type of guy who doesn’t do well with the sight of blood. So Gabe attempted to distract his mind as much as possible.

“I was very concerned about passing out, because then I couldn’t keep pressure on the wound,” he said. “I was trying to normalize the situation a little bit.”

So he told himself it wasn’t a big deal and that he would be OK.

He even snapped selfies of himself and the wound which he later posted with the blog, titled “Accidents happen.” The photos show his running shorts and the lower half of his T-shirt soaked with blood, as well as the ground underneath him.

“I can hardly look at them anymore,” he said. “It almost makes me sick.”

Wearing only running shorts, a T-shirt, vest and wind jacket, Gabe was lightly clothed. Luckily, the first person on scene had a tarp he could wrap around Gabe to keep him warm as the blood loss started to lead to hypothermia. Once the helicopter had GPS coordinates, they flew up and EMTs took over.

“From there things start to become a crazy blur…the most badass EMTs imaginable sliced my shorts right off, put unbelievable pressure on my wound (this hurt more than the initial pole impact), rammed 16-gauge IV needles into my arms, all while quietly and calmly whispering into my ears ‘don’t worry we’ll get you the good drugs soon,’” Gabe wrote. “They came through on their promise, and once I was on a stretcher and covered up the ‘good drugs’ took me to what I can only describe as warm-magical-melting ice cream-world. I came back to reality maybe 20 or 30 minutes later on our way to Casper. Things were challenging from that point on of course, but really from the moment those EMTs showed up I knew I was able to let go and just let them take over — for I had endured.”

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