Sad News

[seanT]

Just picked this up from the Gripped Website
Everyone take a minute to send some positive energy Rebecca's way today.
From rockclimbing.com :

"Today at about 10:00am Rebecca (aka granite_grrl) fell at Mt. Nemo in Milton, Ontario. I don't know all the particulars about the fall, but I do know she fell while placing a piece and hit a ledge on her way down ending 40 feet from where she slipped. I don't know if any gear ripped; i don't know if the last piece she clipped ripped/failed/never got clipped; I don't know how far she fell until she hit the ledge. I do know that she is in intensive care in a hamilton hospital with a broken femur, a fractured skull, a collapsed lung, and some other injuries. She was wearing a helmet, which saved her life according to the officer at the scene after the accident. "

[Fred]

OMG. We had planned to climb with her at Lion's Head this weekend but unfortunately we did not end up meeting up. Does anyone know Rebeca's last name? We will be near Hamilton this week.

[martha]

What a horrible thing. I just received a PM that Rebecca left me on Saturday am on her way home from work talking about climbing that day.

Stay strong Chickie. we are all thinking of you!

[mike]

Thank god she survived. I hope she comes out of the whole ordeal intact.

Helmets are cool.
Mike

[The Teth]

I second what Mike said. Helmets are Cool!!! Good to know she has made it to a hospital, but my heart will be in my stomach until I get some more news.

Teth

[seanT]

Rebecca's last name is/was Lewis but she just got married so not sure now what it might be.

[The Teth]

An update from Brent on RockClimbing.com:

Rebecca went in for surgery on her leg and they put a drain in her head to relieve the swelling. She has come out of surgery and is now in stable condition. This is, thus far, the only other news that I have recieved from the hospital. You will know more when I know more.

Teth

[dcentral]

I hope she has a speedy recovery.

[The Teth]

Info from RockClimbing.com

Fukencanadian (Jul 24, 5:08pm):

Thanks everyone for all the kind thoughts during such a difficult time.

I was with Rebecca belaying her when this unfortunate accident occured. I'm sure everyone is wondering exactly what happened, so without getting into too much detail, She basically took a bad fall while on lead, and struck a ledge before the rope came tight and finally caught her. I'm not too sure what caused her to fall in the first place, from where I was it looked like she had good footing on big blocky terain. I'm guessing that maybe one of her feet slipped while she was preparing to place her next gear. As she fell I just remember pulling in slack as fast as I possibly could, hoping the rope would tighten up before she got to the ledge.

It's an absolutely terrible feeling to see something like this, knowing there's nothing more you can do.

I was with her the whole time once we got her to the ground, as we waited for the EMS to arrive, just trying comfort her, and keep her still. Again, it's such a horrible feeling to see someone in so much pain, and not being able to do anything.

The amount of strength and courage it took for Rebecca to pull through really shows the kind of person she is.

Out of respect to Rebecca, I'd rather not get into too much more detail. If/when she chooses to share her experience, I think she'd like to do it in her own words.

Brent - Thanks for keeping us updated, my thoughts and prayers are with Rebecca and her friends and family. As I've said before, please let me know if there's anything else I can do.

I hope to see you soon Rebecca,

Sincerely,

Colin

Brent_e (Jul 24, 7:05pm):

Again, many thanks to all the kind words you have written here. I printed all the posts up to page 7 and brought them to the hospital for nate to read and for Rebecca to read when she can.

Update on her condition:

I went to see Rebecca tonight, as stated. The injuries she has suffered are a broken femur, which has been pinned together; some broken ribs, a collapsed lung, which has re-inflated (pardom my lack of proper terms); she has a cracked pelvis, as well; a head injury (she now has a tube in her head relieving pressure, and some other cuts and bruises. Talking with Nathan he told me that the doctors scanned her brain and said that there is no sign of trauma. This is the news I was waiting for. However, the doctors also said that they have had people with no signs of trauma come out with problems. We can hope that they are correct in saying she will be fine. Other than that, she is sedated due to the pain and on a respirator to assist with her breathing. She doens't like the tube that is giving her air, though, as she's tried to take it out on her own. She's such a damn fighter.


This is all i know as of monday at about 9PM. I tried to tell Nate of all the PM's and well wishes that have been sent his way and hope I got most of them. He is doing better now that he knows what is happening, and Rebecca's parents have flown in and are by her side. Thank you for all the support, again. I'll keep everyone posted.


and Colin,
thank you for posting. You are doing the right thing to not bring any more details here. I think we can leave that for a while. I appreciate everything you have done for me and others, as well. Thank you.

Brent

Obsessed (Jul 25, 2:47 pm):

Update on Rebecca's progress.

I thought I would give Brent a break and give this short update to let everyone know that Rebecca is progressing well.
Today she was able to open her eyes and look at me, acknowledge me and squeeze my hand so hard I thought my fingers were going to break!
It is very likely that the breathing tube will be able to be removed tomorrow.
Comparing how she was on Sunday to how she is now is a true picture of what kind of fighter this girl is and how strong she is, not only in body but in mind. I have told her that everyone in "our climbing community" is sending their good thoughts and wishes. Keep them coming.

Kelly

Chossmonkey (Jul 26, 4:08am):

I haven't had a chance to read all off the posts yet, but thank you to everyone for all your support. Brent has already printed off the first 7 pages for us. Hopefully Rebecca will be able to read all this soon too.

Rebecca is doing as well as can be expected. I don't have time to go into details but she is making good progress already in her recovery. It is still far too early to know the extent of the damage done to her brain but so far so good. She has been able to do eveything she has been asked to.


Thank you

Nate

[The Mitt]

Looks like Rebecca is doing better and recovering well. What a strong woman.

Mitt

[The Teth]

She is both stubborn and persistent as I recall. These qualities are essential to both climbing hard and recovering fast. She is not the type to let pain stop her from doing what has to be done, so I expect she will make an impressive recovery.

Teth

[The Teth]

From RockClimbing.com
brent_e (Jul 27, 2:27 am):

Hello Everyone,
I got to see Rebecca last night (Wednesday july 26th). Nate, Alison, and myself walked in to see her to find she was without her breathing tube, without the neck brace, and as awake as she could be with the amount of drugs she's on(Nate, of course, was aware of these changes). When Nate asked her "who's here" she looked and said "hi Brent," although she couldn't really see Alison very well. Her voice is still really weak, which i assume is from the breathing tube (it came out wednesday morning). Nate tells me that they took the tube out of her head and that it never really got used as her brain didn't swell enough, so this is a good thing. She is still in a lot of pain, and I presume she will be for a long while, but she is so strong. That is about all the information that I have now.

Keep fighting, Rebecca. All your friends are pulling for you.

On another note: we are going to go to the accident site this saturday to see if we can get a handle on what potentially happened. However, don't expect another thread to be started regarding this aspect of the accident. Until Rebecca gives her consent and input, we don't want to speculate and start a thread like that.


Thank you to everyone who has given information to me. Alison, Clint, Grant, and Rebecca's friends from around canada who have PM'd me. Thanks to John Long for his gracious generosity.

I'll update again soon.

Brent

[The Mitt]

Awesome news.

Mitt

[martha]

Hi All,

Fred and I will be stopping by the hospital today. We do not know if we will get to see Rebecca or not, but hope to talk to her husband/family. we Have a few things to drop off.

I will let you all know how we make out.

.... Keep fighting rebecca!!!

Cara

[The Teth]

More updates from RC.com:

tradrenn (Aug 01, 2:38am):

Myself and Lorri went to see Rebecca yesterday ( Sunday July 30 2006 )and I'm happy to report that she is doing much better then on Wednesday, ( Brent's visit ) she recognized us no problem and was able to have a small conversation with us.

It is kind of funny but she was talking about going climbing. ( I think it might of been cause the drugs she is on right now ) She was also talking about reading some book ( sorry I don't remember the title ) I think that is a very good sign.

obsessed (Aug 2, 3:45pm):

More progress!! I was extremely happy to find Rebecca awake and sipping on a drink of water when I saw her on Monday night. She is still in a great amount of pain and frustrated at her immobility at the moment, and stubbornly wanting to get out of bed! The stitiches will be coming out and she will be moved to a ward very soon. She still has a long way to go, but progressing well everyday.

I told her again that everyone had been pulling for her and wishing her well! That made her smile.

[The Teth]

I have not been keeping up with the updates, but here is the important one:

chossmonkey (Aug 11, 02:12am) writes:

Rebecca still doesn't have internet access, but I did take the lap top in and had her type this up.

granite_grrl wrote:

So I'm not yet back home or on the internet, but I have read over the responses from the thread that Brent had started up and I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone that replied. The positive feedback from the climbing community is one of the reasons that I love this sport so much.

I do not remember anything from the accident, or for a few days in the hospital after that, so I can't really comment on why I screwed up and fell. I had just returned from a trip to Devils Tower and I wonder if I was just getting cocky about my leading ability. Nathan (husband and Chossmonkey) went and checked out the climb after my accident, and he seems to believe that it was well within my ability. Its a sober reminder of how easy it is to let your guard down and get hurt.

I rather doubt I'll be doing much in the way of rock climbing again this season, and at the very least I don't think I'll be doing much (any) leading. I'm still in the hospital, but I can't wait to get home to familiar surroundings. I guess my right leg and hip are pretty messed up, but the fractures should heel pretty good and I'm lucky that I wasn't hurt any worse. And while the rest of this season will be a write off, I still have ice to look forward to in the winter and rock again next spring/summer (though I'm sure my father is disappointed at I didn't finish up with this sport entirely....I think he was muttering about joining a Scrabble league or something last time i saw him).

So again, thank you for the support from everyone. I'm glad I was able to read everybody's posts, and receive cards and stuff from people, and I'm glad I'm still here and well enough to appreciate the support from all those that I know well, and those that I hope i can someday meet. Thank-you everyone!