Broken Femur

I went to SLC for a photo shoot. John was supposed to stay home with the kids but he wanted to go snowboarding with his friends. He called and asked my friend Melanie if she could watch the kids while he went snowboarding. I had my photo shoot for the Mrs. Utah pageant. After the photo shoot I went to the mall to shop for an evening gown. I was enjoying myself when suddenly I got a phone call from John's friend Sam. He told me that John had broke his femur but that he was going to be okay. I was in a panic thinking about my kids and the fact that I was out of town and now John would not be returning home to them. I immediately called Johns mom but she did not answer. I called his sister Becca and she didn't answer either but I got a hold of her husband Fred. He said they could come to St. George to care for the kids and be at the hospital with John. I was thinking maybe John was trying some kind of a crazy trick but he said he went to the side of the slope by the trees and followed his friend over a little bump. There was a turn after the bump and John didn't have enough time to turn and miss the trees so he threw his body to the side but his leg hit the tree. He tried moving his leg but only the top half moved and he knew it was broken. His friends got help and they put him on a sled and took him down the mountain to the clinic. He was in excruciating pain but they claimed they were not aloud to give him anything and that he had to wait for the paramedic to come. The ambulance ended up getting stuck in the snow on its way up Beaver mountain. John was put in the back of a pick up truck and taken down the mountain to the ambulance. By this point it had been 2 1/2 or 3 hours with no pain meds! They gave him morphine when he got in the ambulance but that didn't do anything for his pain so they gave him something stronger. He was taken to Cedar City but they did not have proper equipment for surgery so the ambulance had to drive in a blizzard to St. George. The ambulance ended up having engine problems along the way so they stopped at a Wal-Mart in Cedar city to get parts. The driver did not know how to fix the problem so John had to walk him through it while he was drugged up and laying on a stretcher. He finally made it after a 4 hour journey from Beaver to St. George. I left SLC first thing in the morning so I could get back to the kids and see John. He ended up having surgery. He had to get a steel rod drilled through his hip and down through the center of the femur with a screw to hold it in place. it will be permanent. It is going to be a long recovery and he won't be able to wake board for awhile or work for a couple weeks. HE is using a walker right now and will slowly graduate to crutches. Here is a picture of his x-ray.