www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Note to myself! Be carefull which tours I go on in the future!

Getting ready for work this morning 10-30-2010 5:30 a.m. My first day back and on the Ch2 News Flash I hear a that tourist was injured in Costa Rica during a recent river rafting tour.
A tree branch fell from a tree over the river onto his head during the tour causing 4 fractures of his skull. Three surgeries were performed on his brain in CR. A private jet was provided by donator so that he could return to Houston Sunday for further treatment of his head injuries!

Go figure. Helmet, Life Vest, Trained guides!
Tree branch falls and damn near kills you!

fiddy!

There is more to that incident. The guy and his wife were on a rafting trip with other people. One of the other tourists noticed a vine hanging from a tree branch. He grabbed the vine and started climbing up the vine Tarzan style. His weight caused the branch to breakaway and fall about 30 feet into the raft striking the victim on the head and rendering him unconscious. The guides had to turn the raft over strap the unconscious man onto the raft with duct tape and carry him through some jungle to a road. They called for help but there was no helicopter available to respond so the total time for ground rescue units to get to him and transport him to Hospital CIMA was about 15 hours. Because of the length of time between the accident and his arriving at the hospital his brain had become so swollen they had to cut away a portion of his forehead to relieve the pressure. He was in a coma and his family could not afford the $35,000 cost of an air ambulance to get him home. Fortunately when the story was picked up by the Houston media, his home town, an anonymous donor came forward and provide the money to have him air evacuated to Houston.

_________________
Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

Exactly, it's stupidiy that causes these incidents. Rafting the Pacuare is a great trip, I've done it three times (as well as two trips through Cataract Canyon on the Colorado river in SE Utah) and never had a problem, not even the raft flipping.

Sugar Land man severely injured in Costa Rica arrives home
Full story: www.khou.com
A Sugar Land man who suffered a severe brain injury on a Costa Rican vacation was finally back in Houston Monday afternoon.
Chad Swenson's insurance company refused to pay for an air ambulance to bring him home, but the real estate agent’s friends and family never gave up hope.
On Monday afternoon, a PHI Medivac Lear jet landed at the Atlantic Aviation Airfield next to Hobby Airport. The precious cargo was Chad Swenson. His mother, Sue Marsh, was also on board.
She hugged friends when they landed.
"We made it," she said.
His wife, Eden Swenson, was also on the jet. She choked back tears.
"It feels so good," she said.　
On Oct. 25, Chad Swenson and his wife were vacationing in Costa Rica when, while white-water rafting, a tree limb hit him in the head, fracturing his skull and face.
A fellow tourist was swinging on a tree when that branch fell loose, hitting Chad Swenson and knocking him out of the raft.
That same tourist was also a paramedic, who helped get Chad Swenson out of the rain forest alive.　
Eden Swenson said it took three hours for the other rafters to carry her husband out of the rainforest.
"They flipped (a) raft upside, cut off the sides, put him on it and duct taped him to it," she said, adding that she didn’t even know if he was alive.
All told, it took 15 hours by ground before they reached a neurosurgeon in San Jose. Part of Chad's skull was removed while his brain swelled.
"[The procedure] gave room more to his brain by taking out a piece of bone and storing it in his stomach, then they put that back," explained Mischer Neuroscience Institute Neurosurgeon Scott Shepard.

As for wwring; done it twice in Australia, flipped the raft once and got my face banged up a second time; no more rafting for this nimrod.

_________________
“Good people sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.” And we are the guys that keep them in Eggs & Grits

I loves yous guys. I can always count on getting the unbiased unsensored information from especially you ID. Thanks my friend. All they reported on this morning was that a branch fell on him and that he was flown into town by private jet provided by donor.

That information you provided explains the tree branch falling out of nowhere to this after som many rafts before it?

thanks


fiddie