Howllo Fellow Hounds and safety alert lovers: A few days ago our friend Joni, (Homer’s new Mommy), was letting the dogs out for their morning potty. She was carrying one of her pekes down the back deck steps when she slipped and fell hard on some black ice. She got banged up pretty good and is following her orthopaedic doctor’s advice and instructions.
Joni had a somewhat good outcome but this situation can be grave for others, especially those who live alone. I found it interesting that this story came across the AP today after I had been worring about Joni and her situation.
Here is the story
– DULUTH, Minn. Janice Goodger’s body temperature had fallen to 60 degrees as cold as Dr. Chris Delp has ever seen and so cold that it appeared as if she couldn’t possibly survive.
Instead, the 64-year-old Duluth woman will walk back into St. Luke’s Hospital for a simple checkup today, just days after what Delp, an emergency room physician at the hospital, called an “amazing” medical journey to the brink of death and back.
“I’m not aware of anyone at this age to have survived (being so cold) and to have done this well,” he said.
And Goodger, who returned to her apartment just days after her heart stopped beating for at least an hour as her body temperature fell, seems to have suffered no ill effects.
“I don’t feel any different, except I can’t yell anymore,” Goodger said.
Goodger, who has had rheumatoid arthritis for the past 24 years, was caring for her daughter’s dog on Anderson Road in Duluth on the afternoon of Dec. 27. As Goodger walked through her daughter’s back yard, she slipped on a slick patch of snow and landed hard.
Goodger’s stiff, swollen joints made it impossible for her to get up off the ground, leaving her few options. She ended up scooting along the ground toward where her car was waiting, only to find that she couldn’t get in the vehicle, either.
The former Bottineau, N.D., woman, who moved to Duluth this past fall, was stuck.
She wrapped a long scarf around her legs, pulled her long red coat snugly around her body, reclined in the snowbank, and waited as darkness fell. The night was cold but not frigid. But as Goodger lay in the slushy snow, she grew colder and wetter.
She offered one last thought “well, God, it’s up to you” and waited. Some time later, she slipped into unconsciousness.
Goodger’s daughter found her around 9 p.m., after the family returned from a trip to St. Cloud. Goodger was still alive, still breathing, and her heart was still beating, but just barely.
“When a heart gets that cold, the electrical activity is so fragile, that anything you do will just stop it,” Delp said.
It’s called hypothermia-induced cardiac arrest, and it’s fairly uncommon, said Dave Johnson, operations manager for Gold Cross Ambulance of Duluth and Superior, Wis. Simply moving a severely hypothermic person can cause cardiac arrest, he said.
Delp praised Gold Cross paramedics and the Duluth Fire Department crews that arrived at the scene for recognizing that. The heart muscle must be warmed before there’s even a chance of getting it beating again, Delp said. Shocking a chilled heart, or dosing a patient with cardiac drugs, won’t make a difference.
Once in the St. Luke’s emergency room, doctors worked to bring Goodger’s cold body back to life.
“She was ice cold,” Delp said. “She felt, literally, like a corpse.”
As doctors set up heated IV drips and a machine to pump heated air into Goodger’s body, her blood again began flowing to her extremities.
Extremely cold temperatures can protect some body functions particularly brain activity, Delp said but damage others. After about 20 minutes in the emergency room, Goodger was transferred to the operating room, where cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Mary Boylan used a special machine to drain Goodger’s blood out of her chilled body, warm it and pump it back in.
Emergency responders kept up CPR on Goodger’s body for at least an hour before she was warm enough to make an attempt to start her heart, Delp said. Surgeons shocked the muscle, and it began beating normally.
From there, Goodger’s recovery was quick and, apparently, complete.
The first thing Goodger can remember after the ordeal is her daughter whispering in her ear on the morning of Dec. 28.
“She said, You can go and see your sister in heaven, or you can stay and watch your grandchildren grow up,’ ” Goodger said.
Soon enough, Goodger was sitting up in her hospital bed and licking an orange Popsicle to soothe her throat.
“I went and visited her the next day, and they had already taken her off the breathing machine,” Delp said. “I did not expect her to be able to talk to me; my jaw hit the floor when she smiled at me.”
Delp said that “everything came together perfectly” to help Goodger make her recovery from the paramedics and firefighters who treated her just right, to the constant CPR she received, to the care from Boylan to help warm her heart.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH A SHORT VIDEO OF THIS BRAVE WOMAN
End of article
So, my safety alert is to always take your cell phone with you even if you are just going to the back yard. Something as small as this move could save your life.
I go even a step further.
I don’t even let the kids go down the back steps. I have trained them since I first got them, that they can potty on the back deck during inclement weather. This is where the door with the doggie door is. I also had my plumber install hot water in the outside facet for winter clean up and ice removal on the steps.
I had a situation happen to me years ago where I was trying to clear my sidewalk at 2:00am one icy morning. I hit the walkway, slid down 4 steps, and almost off of a retaining wall.
I managed to get up and back inside. I vowed to never again be so stupid. Just in case you are wondering, I could not sleep and being the bright bulb I am, I thought I could get a jump on clearing the “slush” for the morning.
So take care dear readers and know that we worry about everyone of you.
I would also like to thank Joni for giving me the idea for this blog.
More saftey tips later……….Love, Cat, Chaps and Emma
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