Wow! What a day! Today was BJ's day off. We were able to sleep in and then decided to take the afternoon and check out Mt. Mitchell State Park which is about an hour and a half or so from us. Mt. Mitchell is the highest point east of the Mississippi River. Unfortunately we only made it about 1000 feet past the entrance to the state park.
As we turned into the park I noticed a cyclist had stopped there and was drinking some water. Of course I didn't think much of it...people love biking the Blue Ridge Parkway.
As we rounded a bend in the road we came upon a startling scene. A cyclist was laid out on top of his bike right in the middle of the road and about a half dozen hippies were standing over him. One of them came up to our car and asked us to call 911. Luckily we had a couple bars of reception.
The biker was totally out cold but was breathing and had a pulse. Apparently he was coming down the steep hill just as the hippies were turning around and were blocking the road. The biker collided right into their car and flipped over the hood. The hippy driver was crying and begging the biker to come to. We noticed that the biker had a name bracelet on...his name was Steve and it said he was an MD! Then I remembered seeing the other biker at the entrance to the park so someone went down to see if he knew Steve. Steve then started shaking quite violently but was still unconscious. It just so happened that BJ and I had a sleeping bag in the trunk so we covered him up. A few moments later the other biker came back up and started talking to his friend trying to get him to regain consciousness.
Soon some medics from the ranger station arrived and let us know that they had received word that the ambulance was on its way, but that it was going to take awhile. We were really starting to worry though because it seemed like the guy had been unconscious for quite some time now. He finally did come to though, thank God and was talking but not moving. A half hour or so later more medics arrived with some supplies. We finally knew the guy was probably going to be ok when one of them started an IV for him and he yelled out in pain and said, "My veins are huge! It shouldn't hurt that bad! No offense but I have nursing students who are better at putting in an IV!" The paramedic then said she was giving him something for nausea but he said, "I don't feel nauseous! I don't want anything for nausea!" She gave it to him anyway!
Finally about an hour after we first made the 911 call the ambulance arrived. They got Steve loaded up and were off but only to a half mile down the road where a chopper waited to airlift him to the hospital in Asheville. We loaded Steve's bike and his buddy's bike into our trunk (the injured guy had a custom made bike that collapsed into pieces that could fit into a suit case) and gave the buddy, Greg, a ride back to Asheville to his hotel. Greg was a nice guy who appreciated the ride. He told us about how Steve is an ICU director and sought after doctor in New York. Steve will be the best man in his wedding this summer!
We made the hour and a half journey to Asheville and just as we were passing the hospital Greg's cell phone rang and it was Steve! He had a concussion but was going to be okay!
What a day! After we dropped Greg off we pulled into TGI Fridays and had some dinner! Eli was such a trooper through the whole thing.
Here are a few pics of Mt. Mitchell that I got on the way there from the parkway. One of these days maybe we'll actually get to go on it! But let's just hope and pray that none of us ever gets hurt up there because it takes an hour for an ambulance to arrive and then you'd need a helicopter ride to the hospital that is an hour and a half away!
Here are some funny pics of Eli from this morning. He took this shirt out of the laundry basket and decided to put it on as a loin cloth...I don't want to hear any lame jokes about him cross dressing! He was pretending to be a Native American Warrior!
