Skye Ogilvie Emergency Surgery
UPDATE #2: Skye is back home in Hot Springs, South Dakota after the 800 mile drive from Montana. She is doing well and has 10 weeks of physical therapy ahead of her before she returns to Missoula, Montana to undergo another surgery to remove pins from her ankle. See update pics! Thank you again for all your support and outreach-it means the world to our family and so appreciated! Ann
UPDATE: Skye is out of major leg surgery and now back recovering in Big Arm. Surgery was a success and all the bones lined back up with pins. She is now in a great deal of pain for next 72 hours with mountains of ice and medication to help. She sends all her love and greetings and thanks to all of you who have so generously donated! Her mother, Claudia, is a great nurse and will be there for her every step of the way. She is also moved to tears by your kind donations. THANK YOU!
This is her immediately after the surgery before the nerve block wore off! Little know fact that redheads like her perceive pain differently than normal! Some kinds of pain they don't feel and others are off the charts in pain perception! 
Excellent care from Missoula Bone & Joint! Huge shout out for their amazing expertise! 
Hello, my name is Ann Whiting and I'm raising funds for my cousin Skye Ogilvie who is undergoing emergency leg surgery in Missoula, Montana on June 28, 2021 after a severe horseback accident near Missoula Montana .
We need to raise $35,000.00 in next 30 days to settle surgeon & medical bills. Trust me...he earned every dollar of this very complicated break and we want to get him paid!
See below for pics, but she is now on the recovery train thank goodness! But no insurance means any dollar you can contribute will make a lasting difference in her recovering from this in all ways.
This is a $35,000.00 community, friends and family ask and every single dollar will go directly to her medical bills. Boot that saved her foot.
Left to Right-Cousins Skye, Ann, Blue. 2018.
In June 2021 Skye , an expert horsewoman, was on a friendly pack trip in the mountains of Montana at Fish Creek with her Whiting cousins but her colt, McGregor, scrambled on slab rock and fell uphill shattering her left leg. She has a broken fibula and ankle on both sides. A laborious ride out ensued but her leather boot kept her crumpled ankle in tact while she rode out to get to the Ronan ER. She has been patiently waiting for over a week to get a surgery date and today is the day finally back to recovery! Her horse McGregor is well and also recovering at the family stead in Big Arm, Montana.
She was born in 1977 on the Flathead Indian Reservation, Montana to Alex Nixon Ogilvie and his wife Claudia Ogilvie nee' Whiting. She is a daughter of a WWII veteran Alec Ogilvie history and he was also recently given a posthumous Cowboy Hall of Fame induction in early 2020. Montana Hall of Fame 2020 See the picture of her mother Claudia and her 5 Ogilvie sisters at the bottom! Skye is a humble, loving, adventurous cowgirl who would do anything for any of us. She has a knack for riding and training horses and a bigger talent for staying calm!
Skye is busily self employed with her own tack business building breast collars and cinches from mohair, alpaca and yak cord. Cielo Cinches while spending her time between Montana, South Dakota and Arizona. She has traveled the world in the past 20 years with a skip in her step. We need to help her get skip back!
Skye has no insurance like many small business owners and this is a very critical surgery being done by the best surgeons at Missoula Bone & Joint Center. Along with the rest of the family, we thank you for any dollar amount you can consider. It will all go directly to her medical bills incurred from this emergency surgery. We are just so thankful it wasn't worse and appreciate your time and generosity.
If you want to read more about Skye's life and work, please read on.
Accident Origin:
My friend Tairyn and took our young horses to the mountains! Montana is so beautiful in June! We camped at the Fish Creek trail head and took a day trip up Straight Creek. The creeks were running and it was gorgeous. (In South Dakota we call running water of any size rivers.) my cousin @dougonit left early to clear trail and had hot chili waiting for us before we turned around.
Crossing a rivulet then a rocky ledge, the trail was tricky in one spot and my colt got in the wrong place and tried to cross slick rock. We pancaked so fast! He fell on our left side but jumped right up and used my brand new palm leaf hat for traction.
McGregor and the hat back at the barn:
I laid there thinking I should not have paid so much money for that hat Doug carried me back up to the trail and offered to call for a helicopter on his sat phone, “Good Lord, no!” I was mortified. I wanted to remove my boot while I still could but we still had a 6 mile ride down the trail. We couldn’t find the edge of the vintage vet wrap Doug had so we used super strength duct tape to splint my boot and leg. My fingers were cramped open from shock so I was grateful to borrow @waynelearn good horse! It was one of the longer rides of my life with my leg swelling and crackling and catching on the brush. Strangely, I have never felt so western as I did riding with a broken leg and carrying my non swimmer dog across a couple deeper creeks while leading a mule.
This is me on a borrowed horse, crossing a creek, holding my non-swimming dog across a creek with mule in tow AFTER the fall.
The mood of our group was less than buoyant as everyone wondered what could have been done differently but accidents just happen. It could have been better but it certainly could have been worse!
It took a while to pack up our camp and drive out, so about 4.5 hours from the incident I was wheeled into the Ronan, Montana ER on a quiet Saturday night. Sure enough, they had to cut my boot off. The duct tape and swelling was tough to get between and they asked me if they could cut the sock? Definitely not! I was wheeled into X-ray like a princess and then highly disappointed by the results; fractured fibula and two fractures in the ankle that need surgery.
So, that changes my summer! I am so blessed to have a tribe that bring me food and water and ice and feed my horses and dog and let me steal the whole couch! Now I just need to get through the surgery and the boring process of healing ☺️
The moral of this story is: watch out for flatlanders in the mountains! And don’t ring the bell too often or your “nurses” get crabby!
Signed-Skye Mesa Ogilvie
