The good, the bad....................
2006-04-24

Some where in middle America.... Strike that, some where in Costal Florida... It is the heart that matters more :-) Congrats Trish...

I'm friends with a recently divorced couple. They have three beautiful daughters who are now all in college. They all seem to be handling the divorce thing pretty well. That's a good thing I guess. The oldest girl Lizzy spent the last semester in South Africa.
She was always my favorite. Smart as a whip, cute as a button, polite, respectful, everything you'd want yoru kid to be. She was supposed to be returning to America yesterday so on Firiday, her 21st birthday she went out with friends to celebrate. The celebration of choice? Tandem skydiving....
Now I've never had the urge to jump out of a perfectly good airplane, but people who have done it tell me it is quite a thrill. I'll have to take their word for it, I just have no intrest in falling through the sky with just a piece of cloth keeping me from being crushed like a bug on a windshield. Anyway...
I guess Lizzy's jump was fine until right before they were going to land. Some freak updraft collapsed the chute and her and her partner fell 30 feet to the ground. She has a broken back in two places and her pelvis is shattered into dozens of frgaments. She's in intensive care and heavily medicated. She had major internal bleeding and was in a lot of pain. Her mom is flying there as we speak. That is going to be one long ass flight.
It will be several weeks before should could be moved. The good news is that right now it looks like if she survives all this, that she'll be able to walk. The fall spared all the nerves in that area and she can feel and move her feet. The bad news? Well all the lower end bodily function control stuff has been damaged in a big way. Not a good thing.
The guy she jumped with is in a bad way too but is expected to survive. If this had happened in a lot of other places in Africa, they'd probably both be dead by now, but the medical care where they are is supposed to be pretty good. Keep your fingers crossed OK? This girl was meant for special things in life and I sure hopes she gets to accomplish them.
Later
Ron

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