It was around 6:00 AM on May 9th. The wife and I were out for our regular Tuesday morning run. I reached the east end of our property and turned left onto a rough, dirt road. Suddenly, I was airborne. I remembered rotating in the air and then landing on my right hip. I was certain that my hip was broken. My wife was running a good distance ahead of me. I was lucky that she heard me yell for help. I told her she needs to call an ambulance. When the medical technicians arrived, they quickly surrounded me, asking for my name and personal information.
While it was very comforting to see them, my distraught wife was in no condition to give them the information they needed about me. It was with great relief that I separated the Velcro and handed them my Road ID. It contained my name, phone number, date of birth, health insurance company name and policy number. The ID also listed my medical allergies, as well as heart conditions and devices.
The EMS team was as pleased with using my ID as I was happy to avoid the alternative. They managed to quickly and almost painlessly, stow me away on their ambulance without moving me from my right side. In very short order, the attending technician was on the phone with the hospital, reciting the information on my Road ID, even as we negotiated the rough dirt roads, and headed quickly toward the hospital, some 20 miles away.
I want everybody to know that you don’t have to be alone or unconscious to appreciate the help of a Road ID. Neither my wife nor I will be caught without our Road IDs.
Thanks, for helping me get back on the road again.
UPDATE: I had a compound fracture of my right hip. The surgeon told me it would take 6 months before I could run again. I didn’t tell him that runner’s don’t take 6 months off waiting for boo-boo’s to heal. At the nine week checkup, I was told that the bone was healed and I could start running again.
- Ronald .R from Hereford, AZ
