Helping Mike Ranta's very, very broken arm.

On July 16th 2021 I took a 17-foot climbing fall that broke my arm like a Kit-Kat Bar. When I felt the horrible angle my arm was bending I did not think of anything except, "get me to a hospital, NOW." The pain of ejecting two bones through the skin on my left forearm was unlike anything I've ever experienced. Climbing is dangerous, one of the reasons I stepped back from the company I founded was to have a job with insurance to cover times of illness and injury.

Ambulance->Emergency Room->Surgery->Recovery

The relief in pain lasted until another horrible shock, the bill from my insurance. Even with my "good" medical insurance I will be paying $6,394.71 out of my own pocket. This is honestly just an overwhelming amount. For reference, the original bill was $148,218 charged for hospital services. I don't make that much money and I believed that the money I was paying out of each paycheck would spare me from something like this, but it hasn't. To have insurance and need to sell personal belongings to pay the bills, or sign up to pay over 3 years (with interest), is not what I thought I was paying into.

Climbing is a piece of who I am. I contribute heavily to the Ten Sleep Canyon guidebook and have worked with the US Forest Service to help develop more sustainable climbing practices in Wyoming. I hope to be able to one day return to the sport I love.

Weeks after the injury I am still without full mobility of my hand and arm and will likely need secondary surgeries for tendon repairs to be able to use my hand semi-normally in the future. I am grateful to no longer be in pain.