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Chuck's Story.... |
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I have an unusual story of pain and anguish too. First let's get
the formality out of the way. I am Navy Meteorologist and Oceanographer and
have been in the Navy for over 18 years. I have lived, traveled and surfed
all over the world and have been surfing for about 30 years total.
I shape my own boards as a local backyard shaper, and like everyone else
around me I said, "It will never happen to me..." Well it did! And in the
worse way. This time I got a miracle though, because it almost cost me my
foot and my career in the Navy, not to mention that just two more
millimeters and it could have cost me my life. That's the part that scares
me the most because of my wife and two children. My wife was really upset
and asked me, "how would I explain this to your daughter?" |
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Now with that out of the way, here is what happened. I was surfing by my
house here in Ocean Beach, San Diego on a fun little shoulder to head high
day on 19May04. I was just catching some fun little shoulders and a couple
of close-out barrels when I caught a fun little corner, went up
backside to hit the lip, but the lip hit me back.
You say "oh, that's not a big deal," well, you are right it wasn't,
however while in the wash I felt my fin slice clean through the arch of my
foot laterally and open the bottom of my foot all the way to the Fascia
Tendon, that's the white thing you see sticking out of my foot in the
picture. That's also the tendon that controls your foot, without it you
cannot walk, your foot is dead. Well, just beneath that is your Femoral
Artery, cut that and you will bleed to death within a very few minutes. |
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Well, GOD was certainly watching out for me that morning and kept that from
happening. He kept me going until I got to the hospital where they sent me
right up to the OR. for my first of 3 surgeries to try to keep my foot.
After a few days in the hospital I was able to come home, but I cannot
describe to you the pain I was in, all I can say is I had a lot of morphine
and that barely touched the pain.
Well, it has been nearly 5 weeks since that day and I will be getting my
stitches out next week. Then after a couple of weeks of physical therapy to
walk again, I hope to be back in the water in 3 to 4 more weeks. That's a
total of 8 to 9 weeks for this injury that I am out of the water, not
working, and confined to my bed or couch. Just as a side note, I also
got 2 stitches in my ear the week before because the nose of my board
stabbed me in the ear and tore my ear canal open...but that was minor and I
had a lot bigger problems on my hand at the time. |
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I hate to say it, because it seems that someone at my age (41 years old),
and years of experience surfing, would have thought this would happen and
used PRO TECK fins and a
NOSEGUARD on all my boards, but didn't.
Well, from now on, before I get in the water they will ALL have
NOSE GUARDS and PRO
TECK fins because I never want to have to write another letter like this
again.
Take care and may GOD bless you all.
ALOHA,
Chuck Bragg
www.coveredbythecross.org |
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