Children Should Not Die

As a passenger, I am usually asleep almost as soon as the motor starts in a car. I am always asleep when we pull away at 0530 on our way to go skiing. Last week, I was jolted awake as two, high speed cop cars overtook us. Around the corner was an overturned car against a tree. It was still dark. The only light came from the patrol car lights and the intensely hot blaze of the burning car. We had two SPYteam Jr. Patrollers with us. Because there were fatalities, I stayed with them as Dave rushed with his patrol pack to help. The first on the scene was another ski patroller, a professional paramedic. He was able to assist the injured driver but not able to free the two other young men before fire overtook the car. His/our solace was that he was confident that the other two had died from the impact. (Autopsy showed they died on impact). They were 20 year old college students on a skiing adventure.

Yesterday was a day of intensities. The car ride was uneventful and I awoke to rain on the ski slopes. I was more than happy to spend the morning inside, playing with exposure settings on my camera and helping the SPYteam learn and practice advanced aid skills.

SPYteam members and patrollers in Ski Patrol Aid Room

learning airway management

spinal injury training

securing the spinal cord injured patient to the backboard

I had signed up for a special, afternoon, ski lesson for patrollers to take skiing to the next level. My fear of speed and obstacles was modified by rain fogged goggles. I had to ski by feel, not by sight. I was taken way beyond my physical and mental comfort level and have very sore muscles to show for it.

By 3:30 the patrol radio chatter was unimaginable. Two ambulances, and one on the way. Two patients to transport off the hill on backboards and then a third at 4:00. The aid room was already flooded with the usual sprains, breaks and cuts. The Jr. Patrollers were marshaled to use their crowd control and aid skills for real. Just after the third back injury arrived, Karmen, one of the SPYteam, came into the patrol lunchroom in tears. I thought she was just overwhelmed by the medical chaos and went to comfort her. Her first words were "Raleigh (her brother also a Jr. Patroller) is not dead but two others are."

Every school has them: the most popular, talented, athletic, good looking boys with top grades to boot. Future leaders of the world. Each year, 10, senior, South Eugene High School, "Mr. Axemen" raise thousands of dollars for the Children's Miracle Network. This weekend they were on a group retreat at the Oregon Coast. Raleigh is one of the Mr. Axemen. While out on the rocks, two of the boys were swept away by a wave and drowned.

How do you reconcile the sudden deaths of four young men? How do you comfort youth who have lost the naive, invincible optimism of life? Dave went to the mountain today to be there for any SPYteam members who showed up. I write.

Children should not die. Children should not know death.