Let’s Rally to support Susannah’s recovery!❤️‍

On Tuesday 5/13 my mom went out with her young rescue horse ‘Pup.’ They had a great ride, he was well behaved and they were enjoying the gorgeous spring weather.

From what I understand listening to my mom, Pup was hesitant about going over a dried creek bed that had long grass. (I’m sure she’ll eventually put her story out there and clarify anything I misunderstood.) He reared as they were coming up and must’ve lost his footing. He fell on top of my 110 pound mother. She knew immediately that things were bad. She was with it enough to know that she had just minutes before the adrenaline would run out. She managed to get herself up, swim across a deep creek, crawl across a field and hang herself on a fence until luckily a local woman from Penn Valley drove by and found her.

Joe’s unit was actually the responding fire emergency personnel (thank you Capt. Vandervort for your excellent response.) They loaded her up into an ambulance and transported her to a hospital in Marysville. I left work and met her at the hospital since it is close to where I teach. Once I got there, they let me know that she was going to be transported to UC Davis‘s trauma center in Sacramento. I followed the ambulance and was with her as they took her into the trauma bay. They stabilized her and did an MRI to see the extensiveness of the damage that was done. It was bad, there were multiple fractures to her vertebrae from her neck to her tailbone. The worst being her T7, which was obliterated. Her patella was (and is) shattered.

Stef and the HEART team, along with my husband (Joe) and dad (Michael) mobilized quickly to try and find Pup. They used a drone and gave so much of their time and energy searching for him Tuesday afternoon until well after dark. There are so many people to thank on that team: Melissa, Amrita, Lisa, Stef, Donna… and more… I’m forever grateful to you. They found Pup the following morning, not far from my mom’s rig. He was completely uninjured and happy to get home to his pasture and his horsey family.

My mom had emergency spine surgery on Thursday at UC Davis. They fused her T5, T6, T7, T8 and T9 together. They also ‘fixed her neck.’ At this time, they are not worried about her shattered knee because they’re just trying to get her through the first intense spinal surgery.

She almost didn’t make it through recovery, she came out of anesthesia with an incredibly low heart and respiratory rate. They called me and asked me to come in right away to try and bring her around. A recovery that should take an hour or two took over four hours and I pleaded with her not to leave me.

She pulled through, but it’s still really touch and go. Her blood pressure is high and the risk of stroke, blood clots, infection, and her having complications is also very high. The thing that has kept her going is all of the love she’s feeling from her people. I have been by her bedside everyday, held her hand, washed the blood and dirt out of her hair and been a big pain in the butt when I felt her concerns weren’t being heard. She’s very weak, but I’m so very hopeful that her tiny body and huge heart will rally and overcome this. I simply can’t imagine my life without my mama. Those who know us.. you know how incredibly close we are as a family. It’s just my mom, my sons and myself who are blood here in the states.

The road ahead is going to be a long one. Michael will have to take days off of work, there will be special medical supplies we’ll have to purchase, trips to UC Davis and parking (WTH is up with $18/visit?!?) It all adds up.

We’d never normally ask for financial support, but I know it’s necessary. If we don’t end up using it all, it will be donated to pay it forward to benefit HEART or horses in need. My mom has always given her heart to help others, from stray animals to stray people… as one of her friends said, she’s been the light for so many in darkness and I just pray that the light will come back to her in this time of need.

She’s currently at UC Davis in the neurology surgery department. She isn’t strong enough yet for visitors, calls, emails etc. I know once she’s back home, she’ll be wanting to see her people and her animals again. I’ll keep people updated as the days go on I promise xo

Talk soon,

Kristina