Help Jules Fly Again
Donation protected
Jules, the life of the party with the biggest smile of them all has had a pretty bad accident flying in WA a week ago and could really use our help.
She is a mega badass and after a landing gone wrong in a very technical spot she was left on the ground with a broken back and pelvis for 5 hours before her friends could find her and a total of 7 hours before life flight arrived.
Although she has basic state insurance she has multiple long term expenses that will fall on her,, not to mention loss of work during this time.. she has a really long road ahead of her with years of therapy to get back in the air where she belongs.
Here is the description of the accident from Jules herself.
" I was the first one off a new line. We haven’t flown this mountain yet and couldn’t see the LZ from launch. I Misread the winds when i was coming in for landing. Didn’t think I’d make it to the main LZ and I found a rad sandbar to land on... so I chose that. Did a low 180 when I realized I was going downwind and it was too late. Tried to ride it out and land down the stream, but took a couple collapses with tree rotors and had me landing feet first into a boulder...So then from there i knew I broke my hip and probably my back. So I just tried to keep the pelvis closed in case I had internal bleeding.
It was 1:30 when it happened and I had no idea or not if the other guys saw where i landed. My Rasta Rapidos was stuck in a tree and I couldn’t get it out for them to see me better. About an hour later and it’s about 90 degrees out, I start to feel dehydrated so I decide I’m going to have to army crawl 20ft to the creek that I landed by to drink some water to keep me coherent. So I did that and then basically waited with an emergency blanket i had in my harness until around 6pm when they were able to get a private friend’s search heli to find me. Jamie went to NPS immediately when they realized something was wrong. NPS said they’d send some rangers to look in a hillside with binoculars but wouldn’t send a SAR heli. So Jamie got ahold of my buddy and another guy with a heli we knew to search. Once they found me, NPS wouldn’t let the heli take me to the hospital though and made me wait for a lifeflight heli for another hour or so. So i wasn’t in a heli with meds until 8pm.
As for injuries...
I broke my pelvis in a couple places and then shattered my L2. I ended up not having to get T11-L4 fused, only T11-L2. So that’s huge on a mobility stand point. They did piece together my L1 with screws though but all hardware can be taken out at some point if it give me trouble.
As for my pelvis, I did have to have a plate put into my anterior side of my pelvis and then have rods and screws through the posterior side to keep it together.
If it were only the spine, I’d be ok to stand up alone today. But since it’s my hip and right side, I can only put weight on my left leg to basically go from bed to wheelchair for 6 weeks. So that is an incredibly huge bummer. I haven’t had any sensation in my bottom parts so trying to figure out why I still can’t feel there postoperative.
Update: i damaged the spinal cord at the conus which translates to the sensation that you feel in your bum and front half. This will take your to a year and a half of rehab, if feeling will ever come back."
Jules is in need of specialized care as well as some second opinions on her spinal cord damage. Ever dollar helps and if you have been severely impacted like many of us by covid you can still help out by sharing this with your friends.
Thank you
She is a mega badass and after a landing gone wrong in a very technical spot she was left on the ground with a broken back and pelvis for 5 hours before her friends could find her and a total of 7 hours before life flight arrived.
Although she has basic state insurance she has multiple long term expenses that will fall on her,, not to mention loss of work during this time.. she has a really long road ahead of her with years of therapy to get back in the air where she belongs.
Here is the description of the accident from Jules herself.
" I was the first one off a new line. We haven’t flown this mountain yet and couldn’t see the LZ from launch. I Misread the winds when i was coming in for landing. Didn’t think I’d make it to the main LZ and I found a rad sandbar to land on... so I chose that. Did a low 180 when I realized I was going downwind and it was too late. Tried to ride it out and land down the stream, but took a couple collapses with tree rotors and had me landing feet first into a boulder...So then from there i knew I broke my hip and probably my back. So I just tried to keep the pelvis closed in case I had internal bleeding.
It was 1:30 when it happened and I had no idea or not if the other guys saw where i landed. My Rasta Rapidos was stuck in a tree and I couldn’t get it out for them to see me better. About an hour later and it’s about 90 degrees out, I start to feel dehydrated so I decide I’m going to have to army crawl 20ft to the creek that I landed by to drink some water to keep me coherent. So I did that and then basically waited with an emergency blanket i had in my harness until around 6pm when they were able to get a private friend’s search heli to find me. Jamie went to NPS immediately when they realized something was wrong. NPS said they’d send some rangers to look in a hillside with binoculars but wouldn’t send a SAR heli. So Jamie got ahold of my buddy and another guy with a heli we knew to search. Once they found me, NPS wouldn’t let the heli take me to the hospital though and made me wait for a lifeflight heli for another hour or so. So i wasn’t in a heli with meds until 8pm.
As for injuries...
I broke my pelvis in a couple places and then shattered my L2. I ended up not having to get T11-L4 fused, only T11-L2. So that’s huge on a mobility stand point. They did piece together my L1 with screws though but all hardware can be taken out at some point if it give me trouble.
As for my pelvis, I did have to have a plate put into my anterior side of my pelvis and then have rods and screws through the posterior side to keep it together.
If it were only the spine, I’d be ok to stand up alone today. But since it’s my hip and right side, I can only put weight on my left leg to basically go from bed to wheelchair for 6 weeks. So that is an incredibly huge bummer. I haven’t had any sensation in my bottom parts so trying to figure out why I still can’t feel there postoperative.
Update: i damaged the spinal cord at the conus which translates to the sensation that you feel in your bum and front half. This will take your to a year and a half of rehab, if feeling will ever come back."
Jules is in need of specialized care as well as some second opinions on her spinal cord damage. Ever dollar helps and if you have been severely impacted like many of us by covid you can still help out by sharing this with your friends.
Thank you
Organizer and beneficiary
Clair Marie
Organizer
Wenatchee, WA
Jules Owen
Beneficiary