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August 19th 2005
I was out about 100 yards at a 1 foot low tide. The water was approximately waste deep. A walled up wave came and I just tried to let it pass by. It closed out and ripped my board from me.My 9’0 Becker surfboard went nose into the sand then fell back toward me with the center fin entering my thigh.
Immediately I knew my femoral artery was severed as arterial blood began to gush out with every heart beat. I knew I had only minutes to live before bleeding out and that if I lived it would be a miracle. The amount of blood gushing out was terrifying. I took my leash and quickly wrapped it around my thigh, but over my wet suit. I held the leash around my thigh, still blood gushing out and began to walk towards shore. With my left hand I kept waving and my board was being dragged behind me by the leash.
I estimated to be about 100 yards from the lifeguard tower. Then I saw a lifeguard truck driving south on the beach and I thought surely he’ll see me…he kept on driving, my heart sank. I was screaming at the top of my lungs but no one was around. I was now in about knee deep water and feeling like I was going to pass out and die. Then finally I got the attention of a woman in the water.
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Five hours later the surgeon came out and told my husband that he was not sure if I would make it, or my leg. I woke up sometime on Saturday in the cardiac care unit where I stayed for 3 days before they transferred me to a surgical floor. Then the next few days were critical because the ischemia and ensuing compartment syndrome in my lower leg would give off toxic by-products that could cause kidney failure and death.
At this point I passed out and the next thing I knew was that I was being carried by a bunch of people to the sand and I was telling them that it was my femoral artery. They laid me in the sand and there was the lifeguard truck in front of me. A lifeguard immediately began to apply pressure and I told him it’s the artery. He said I was not bleeding that much.
Unfortunately no one saw the massive amounts of blood I left in the ocean, over 50 % of my blood volume. I began to lose feeling in my foot. I was lifted into the back of the lifeguard truck and driven onto the parking lot where the paramedics now transferred me to their truck. By now I had lost ALL feeling in my foot and began to experience excruciating pain from my lower leg which was no longer receiving blood. It was like a huge cramp that would not stop.
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 The paramedics also said I was not bleeding that much (that’s because I had lost so much blood and now was in shock). The p-medics started an IV and took me to Scripps Encinitas. The ER doc quickly discovered that it was more than just a bad puncture. They called a helicopter and started giving me blood. The helicopter flew me to Scripps La Jolla. From the ER I was eventually taken to the OR.
But by the grace of God and with the doctor in agreement, I lived and I have kept my leg. The surgeon was able to repair the femoral artery using the saphenous vein for a graft. He was unable to find both ends of the obliterated femoral vein and ligated the distal end. He was also unable to find both ends of a sensory neuron.
A fasciotomy was performed to relieve swelling in my lower leg and hopefully save it. I was in the hospital for 23 days and came home with a load of scars from incisions that the surgeon had to make to save me and my leg. Recovery is expected to take about a year. I hope that I will be able to surf in the future and will do so with Pro-Teck fins. I had bought them for my son’s board but not mine. Now all my friends are buying them.
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