Saturday Chris had to guide at the pheasant club. Chris has guided up there for 2 years. My dad has guided up there for about 10 years. They have never had any accidents until this last year. They had a guy get hurt there in Feb. A client just died there on Tuesday when he was accidentally shot by another hunter. Chris was headed up for a morning hunt. He gave me a kiss and headed out the door. Kennedy and I were going to go to my Grandma Bartons for the day and make suckers before our Christmas party for his mom. It was just before 9:30 and I was just getting up. I had spent the morning relaxing and just enjoying sleeping in. I got a call from a number I didnt know and didnt answer it because with all the scams and bull going around. I never answer numbers if I dont know them. The number called me immediately back so I answered.
It was Chris. He says to me "Honey Ive been shot. I love you" I said dont you dare shit me! I was sure he was thinking he was funny and was going to say just kidding they cancelled and Im on my way home or something. Nothing was clicking besides complete disbelief. He tells me again I love you Ive been shot. And I can hear it in his voice but I just dont want to believe him. My heart is in my stomach at this point and Im trying not to panic. I said seriously dont lie to me about this. I mean its not exactly what I was expecting when I answered the phone. He tells me he was shot in the face and he cant see and he cant move his arm. Hes trying hard not to cry on the phone and he just keeps telling me over and over that he loves me. I knew at this point it was serious. Chris isnt shy of saying he loves me but when I hear it 15 times in about two minutes I know hes scared. He told me don't worry the ambulance is on the way and he just wanted to hear my voice before they got there. I asked him where he was and he said on the mountain still trying to get back to the truck. I am mentally going thorough my head saying ok hes talking. That means hes conscious and he has a good airway. Im listening to see if there is any wheezing or anything like that to indicate breathing issues and I cant hear any. I made sure someone was there with him and he said "I have to go. Call my dad and both of you get to Logan Regional NOW" I told him no way! Im not hanging up with you. I was too scared to. I kept thinking what if he dies. I cant hang up with him if hes going to die Im going to stay on the phone with him until I see him. He said again he needed to go to get where the ambulance was and he loved me and he would see me at the hospital and he hung up. I just sat there trying to process it all.
I immediately called his dad and was bawling. I couldn't even talk. I asked him where he was and he said in Franklin Id. I kept thinking how am I going to get the words out that Chris has been shot. How do I tell him his best friend and son is hurt and we dont know how bad it is and hes on the way in an ambulance. Todd kept asking me what was wrong and I finally got out Chris called, he has been shot and hes on the way to Logan Regional. Kennedy was downstairs by this point and I told her we need to get dressed NOW and leave. She was dressed and had her shoes on before I could blink. I hurried and threw on some clothes, threw my hair in a pony with a hat on and we were out the door.
Jana had called me as we were walking out the door to see if I needed her parents to come drive me to the hospital. All I could think was no that will take too long. I knew I had to drive safe to get there because Kennedy was in the car and if I got in a wreck or hurt it would take even longer to see him. We headed up Sardine which just so happened to be in a blizzard.. Go figure right. My phone is ringing non stop on the way. My mom had called, she didnt know what was going on and I told her so she was getting a hold of my dad and on the way. My sisters kept calling, my mom was calling, Jana was calling to check on me driving. I made it just past Dry Lake when I got another number I didnt recognize and by hell I answered it. It was the Trooper who was on scene. He said Hi this is Trooper (someone) how are you? I said well Im on my way to Logan Regional right now and he says good you know I think its best you head there now and the line went dead. F..... Its really sketchy service through there. I finally got to where I had service and called him back. He said Chris was just being put in the ambulance and I might beat him there. That he was conscious but hurt. I asked him who shot Chris. He was kind of hesitant to tell me. I said I just have to know who it was. He said well it was a 12 year old boy. It sounds strange but I was instantly relieved at that point. It was something that was just an accident and thats what I told the trooper. I said it would have been different if it was one of the adults but I know completely that it was just an accident because it was a kid.
As I was almost there his mom called me to see if I had any updates. I was having to use my phone to tell me how to get there because I had only been to Logan Regional ONCE the time we took Phil there and it was dark and we came in from the other direction. I finally made it there when Todd called and asked where I was. I told him just parking next to your truck and he came out to meet me. Chris had been taken back for a CT scan. He said Chris kept yelling for me. We walked into his ER room where he wasnt at. I saw blood and mud all over the floor. His hoodie was covered in blood and cut to shreds. I didnt cry the whole way there. I didnt cry when we got there. I couldnt . I had Kennedy with me and didnt want to scare her. I had to be strong for Chris and Kennedy. I couldnt look at Todd in the eye the whole time we were in the ER because I knew if I did he would see through me and I would completely lose it. Kennedy was terrified and wouldnt let go of my hand. The sweet nurse came in and wanted to get her a drink and a cookie and coloring page. She wouldnt let go of me so I went with her. Chris still wasnt back in his room. A deputy was on scene and he was asking questions.. address dob etc. He was a nice guy and talked with us until Chris came back out. They wheeled him back into the room. He was covered in blood and a wreck. His eye was huge and purple. His hands were covered in blood. His face was covered in blood even though they had cleaned him up twice and you could see all the bullet wounds in his face. The nurse says to me "are you Jess??" I said yes and she sighed and said "Thank goodness because hes been yelling for you!" I grabbed his hand and stood by his bed. We listened to the drs and they said that he had a bullet in his eye. One in his neck that was a millimeter from his carotid artery and several other ones. At this point Chris cant see out of his right eye. The eye dr came in and said we need to relieve pressure NOW or he will lose his eye. In eye pressure anything over 20 is at a serious risk for losing his eye. He was at 34. So they did what was called a canthotomy. They cut the bottom eye lid were it connects on the outside by the other eye lid so it relieves the pressure. They have to cut the skin and the inside tissue and the part of the eye lid where the bottom eye lashes are. They gave him 4 local numbing shots but it didnt work so he felt the whole thing. As soon as they cut his eye lid he got vision back which was a HUGE HUGE HUGE relief. We thought he was going to be blind in that eye. He also had no movement or feeling in his left arm. He couldnt move it at all. The doctor told us that there was a bb lodged with in a millimeter of his carotid artery and they needed a vascular surgeon to look at it and determine what to do because there was a good chance the bb would shift in the next short while and that could kill him. He said they weren't equipped to handle Chris's injuries at their hospital and they wanted to fly him to SLC because they were so concerned. Well remember that blizzard I drove through... it prevented Life Flight from being able to fly to Logan. They moved the whole family into a special waiting room. Ash and Derek were there by then too. They were working on Chris and wouldnt let us into the room with him. They told us they were calling for an ambulance transfer to Brigham City Hospitals Helipad and they would load him hot and fly him to IMC in Murry where the closest vascular surgeon was. I asked them if they would let me ride in the ambulance with him to there because I just wasnt ready to let him out of my sight. I knew I couldn't go in the bird with him but I needed to be near him. Derek drove my car down to their house and Ash dropped Kennedy off at Liz's house. She got to see Chris and tell him she loved him. We knew it was going to be a long time and we wouldnt come home for a while so it was better for her to go play with Kinlie.
Dad, Mom and Kyle had gone and gotten Chris's dogs and truck from the club. Kyle took them home and mom and dad were headed to the hospital. Taylor had text me then too so I called him and told him what was going on. He didnt believe me at first either. We wanted Chris to have a blessing and wanted his Grandparents to meet the ambulance in Brigham since its right by their house but they said the bird was waiting so they would have to do it at IMC. Everyone headed down to the hospital and we ran hot in the ambulance. The driver was really nice and the guy in the back took good care of Chris. We arrived at the helipad and no bird was there. It was pouring rain. As soon as we pulled in, Todd was right behind us, then Elysha, then Taylor and his mom and then Ash. Taylor and his mom came into the ambulance to see Chris and cry. Both of them were really shooken up. Mom and Dad came in next to see him and talk to him before he flew. They had called for a transport for me to go to IMC and there was a DNR officer who was available and volunteered to take me. The idea was he will get me there a little faster than anyone else. It helps to have friends in high places! They had said the bird was just a few minutes out so I kissed Chris goodbye and got in the truck with the DNR guy. He actually ended up being the same one who stopped us above the I in Brigham the week before the archery deer hunt ended and he was super nice. We made it to about 2700 n when they called and said the bird had finally taken off. They had a lot of problems getting off the ground because of the weather. The ceiling was super low, we had bad winds and strong rain. I actually didnt think they would be able to take off from SLC to make it up here.
Mom took these pictures for me
It was the longest drive ever to Murray. The weather sucked. Traffic sucked and I just wanted to be there with him. We FINALLY made it to IMC. His mom who lives in Taylorsville had waited down there for us since we told her he was being flown down. Her, Jimmy and Hunter met me there and Grandpa Roy was just finishing up giving him a blessing when I arrived. Grandma Kathy was in there too. About 5 minutes after I got there Todd and Jana showed up and about another 5 minutes my parents got there. Todd, JaNeale and I were all in the ER room with him. It was 85 degrees. I was SO HOT I was getting sick. It was 1:00. I hadnt eaten or drank anything. Stressed to the max. Sweltering hot room. Injured husband on the table. I started getting sick. I had to take off my hoodie and ask the nurse for some water. Chris got sick too from all the pain meds and heat and started throwing up. The eye doctor came in and looked at his CT scans again. He said that the BB wasnt actually in his eye ball like the prior doctor in Logan had just told us. It was actually sitting in the back of the cone in the eye against the optic nerve between the muscles that control the up and down and side to side movement of his eye. He did some more looking and said it looked like his retina was partially detached. He also told us that the doctor before didnt do enough of a canthotomy he needed to do a deeper one. He numbed his eye and measured pressure again. He was at a 21. He made a deeper longer incision along the eye lid and when he was done the pressure was down to 18. I sat right next to Chris and held his hand the whole time. I was glad the doctor let me stay because I wasnt leaving. He had him look at cards about 3 inches from his face and Chris had 20/20 vision in his damaged eye. The doctor was completely floored and amazed he could see at all. He kept taking pictures of the CT scans and of Chris's eye just amazed he had sight. He told he had no idea how he had vision and that where the BB was at he could NOT remove it. He said they would almost for sure risk causing him to go blind or lose his eye ball completely because of where it was lodged at. They needed us to find out what kind of bbs they were because if they were lead or steel it was ok. But if they had copper in them they would cause big problems in the body and they needed to be removed. Thankfully they were lead or steel. We arent sure he had a mixed bag. He also said there was a large subderal hematoma at the back of the eye had he has some serious hemorrhaging. His eye needed to drain out all the blood to relieve the pressure.
This is Chris in the ER at IMC. He has 2 BBs in his head under the skin on top of the skull. One went in his eye brow and went into his soft tissue at the back of his nose where the mouth meets it. He has one through his nose above the nostril that went into the soft tissue of the nose. His mustache was caked in blood from the wound to his nose and I told him they were going to have to cut his mustache and he said let them! do whatever they need to do! He also has one in the neck that by the time they had flown him to IMC had miraculously shifted DOWN and into the braechial plexus nerve bundle in his shoulder and didnt damage his carotid thank goodness. He also has one in his arm just about where the elbow bends and they found one in his rib area. So that made 8 in total.
This is the one in the neck. He had broken out in a stress rash all over his face and chest by the time they got to IMC.
We were just so thankful by this point that he was alive and the doctors were amazed. Chris was hurting and not feeling well at all but he was being his normal smartass self to the nurses telling them he was the best looking patient they had even after being shot in the face. He was drugged up and exhausted. About this time is when it was released on all the news stations with his name. We had no idea his name was going to be released. Our phones went CRAZY. We had to turn them off because everyone close was already here and Facebook, texts, phone calls and messages from concerned people were overwhelming us. Zack had called right before that but the doctor was cutting open his eye and I didnt answer. By the time they moved us out of the ER room Zack, Taylor and Tammy were there. They told us they were taking him up to ICU to spend the night and we all needed to go to the 5th floor waiting room.. thats where ICU was. I walked out into the waiting room with the rest of the family and there was Dusty, Nickie, Jesse, Kacey, Cody, Roy, Kathy, Jimmy, JaNeale, Hunter, Ash, Derek, Ry, Tammy, Taylor, Zack, my parents, Debbie and Greg, Todd and Jana. We all made it up to the 5th floor.
The nurse walks into the waiting room and says who is here for Chris Richards. 23 of us raise our hands. She says no really who all is here for Chris? All 23 of us raise our hands again and laugh. She says wow... ok here are the rules. I will let you ALL back at once to see him. I will explain everything so I only have to say it once and then we have to cut the numbers down in the room ok? We were all great with that. Ry is only 2 so she wasnt really allowed in the ICU but they let her just to give Chris a toy she had just picked out in the gift shop and see him and she had to leave. We were so thankful the nurse was so nice. She brought us all in. We filled the room. She explained everything and then everyone left. They all went down to the cafeteria to eat and I stayed with Chris. It was about 3pm by now. His poor eye was bleeding all over the place. I turned on my phone and had 7 voice mails 10 messages on Facebook and so many people asking if he was ok. It was surreal.
Chris wasnt allowed to have even water until the speech therapist came in and did a swallow study on him. They had swabbed down this mouth once since the accident happened and he was so hungry and thirsty. All he wanted was a cheeseburger and water. She made him drink some water and she looked at his throat. She asked him to eat a cookie and he told her sorry if he ate it he was going to throw it right back up because he had all those meds on an empty stomach and he was so sick. After she left he was allowed to have sips of water but no food since he didnt eat the cookie.
Taylor was sweet enough to stop at our house and pack us up a bag of clothes for over night for Chris and I. He had to even get into my underwear drawer..which of you know Taylor you know he was blushing the entire time and probably had to use a pencil to pick them up with. He was so nice. He even grabbed my toothbrush and tooth paste and put them in a ziplock bag. Grabbed me a hairbrush. Tshirt and hoodie and socks and jeans. He even grabbed Chris a full set of clothes and pj bottoms in case he didnt want to wear jeans. At this point Chris is only in his underwear. All his other clothes had been cut off him or removed.
Everyone had pretty much left. Mom and Dad came back from the cafeteria to say goodbye. Dad had been working in Ogden and was going back to work. I couldnt find my debit card anywhere (Id left it at home when I was running out the door) and so he left me with some cash to eat with or if I needed anything else. Todd and Jana, Taylor and Zack stayed. Todd and Jana went to sit with him in the room and they made Taylor take me downstairs to go get food so I wasnt alone and didnt get lost. He took me down to the cafeteria and I ordered a Philly cheese steak and fries. Zack stopped by he was running to Best Buy across the street to buy Todd and Jana phone chargers and wanted to see if we needed anything. Taylor wouldnt let me pay for my food and sat with me as I ate my first food in 24 hours. It tasted like cardboard. I couldnt taste a thing but everyone swore the food there was amazing. Then we walked out to the car to get my bag. He wouldnt let me carry it and walked me back to the room just as Zack was getting back. We have some of the most amazing friends. It is unreal how good of care those two boys took care of us! It was about 7:30 by this point and Taylor and Zack left. Todd Jana and I settled in for a long night in the ICU.
There was one reclining chair. One solid chair and one piece of shit ergonomic chair that was horrible. Todd and I took turns between the decent reclining chair. The nurses had to come in about every hour and do vitals every 2 hours. It was a rough night. I was too worried to sleep. I was completely exhausted but sick. I finally got about 30 minutes of sleep around 1. Todd and Jana made it til almost 3 trying to sleep in the horrible shitty chairs in the room and even tried to sleep in the waiting room but it was too uncomfortable. They headed back to Willard at 3 am to get some sleep. I got about another hour of sleep. They had to give him more meds at 4:30 and then at 5:30 they came in to do a chest x ray on him. Todd text me at 6 to check on Chris and they made it back down around 8. His mom was back at the hospital by 8 also. She just lives in Taylorsville about 2 miles away.
They also came in to do a blood clot ultrasound on his legs. Thankfully he didnt find any. Mr Smartass told the doctor doing the ultrasound he was pregnant and as he scanned up his thigh Chris told him it was a boy and sorry if it kicked him.
All I wanted the next day was a shower. That was it. I couldnt figure out why I wanted one so bad and then I realized I hadnt had one that morning. I told Chris I was going to go to his moms house and shower but I was going to wait til his Dad got there. They came in that morning and said the chest xray looked good. No fluid build up in the lungs and that afternoon as soon as a bed opened up they were going to move him to the 11th floor where the regular rooms were. We were really excited to be moving out of the ICU. This was him that afternoon.
A room finally opened up around 11 . They even let him walk up there. We put on his pj bottoms and he was good to go. By this point he was able to wiggle the fingers in his left arm and move it some from the elbow down. They were concerned about his numbness and paralysis in his arm also. After we got him settled in his room I left to his moms house to shower. She had to drive me there because I had no car, no idea how to get to her house from there or where anything was. A shower felt AMAZING. I needed it so bad. I didnt even blow dry my hair or put on any makeup (plus I didnt have any) I just threw my hair in a pony tail, put on some new clothes and headed back. JaNeale stopped at Burger King and tried to make me eat. I was still to wound up to eat but choked down a few fries and a DP.
We got back to his room and it was full of people again. Tammy Taylor and Steve were there. Hunter and Jimmy. Todd and Jana. Plus one doctor had came in and talked to him and then the neuro specialist and his other drs came in. Todd forced me to gag down two bites of a hamburger. It tasted like cardboard and sat like rocks in my stomach. They made Chris do all kinds of lifting and movement tests to see what exactly was wrong with his arm. They said they only way to tell if the nerves were severed was an MRI.. but he cant have an MRI EVER because of the BBS in his body. The told us if the nerves were severed they would never heal and his arm would be useless. They did a few more tests and said they could feel the nerves trying to fire in the arm. The beleived they werent severed. They told us which ones they were but I cant remember. They said the nerves had shock damage from the velocity of the shot. That it had probably cut but not severed some of the nerves and severely bruised them. They were shocked into not working basically and they needed to heal. It was like he damaged his rotator cuff. He had the same movement restrictions. It made his muscles extremely weak and affected his bicep, deltoid and trapezius. Those are the muscles he cant really move. He can move his arm from the elbow down. But he has no grip strength and cant hold weight. He cant lift his arm with it extended or lift his elbow up by his head. They told us only time will tell how much movement and strength he will get back but dont expect much for about 6 months or so.
They had told him they would like him to get up and walk around every few hours in the hospital to help prevent clots. We went for our first walk together around the floor. We were amazed at how good of shape he was in compared to those around us.
He held my hand with his bad hand and it was about the sweetest thing ever.
Chris felt horrible. He was weak as hell. Bleeding still. In pain. Head was swollen but in all this he didnt let it get his spirits down. He was so thankful to be alive and just wanted to go home. He is a smartass by default. He kept giving all the nurses a hard time and joking with them. By this time he was off pain meds and only on Tylenol because he wanted to get out of there. He was being given antibiotics 4 times a day. People would walk in expecting him to be near death and he starts cracking jokes to them about him only having one eye or one good arm.
My parents and Grandparents came by that afternoon to visit too. No one could believe how well he was doing. They wanted him to keep ice on his eye and gave him this. We called it his bra :)
Chris was finally able to eat and feeling better. He just wanted a cheeseburger from McDonalds. Todd and Jana left us alone and went and got one. He told me to come cuddle with him in the bed. I got to lay next to him and lay my head on his chest for the first time since it happened. I needed it so bad. They brought us in food and we both sat there together eating. Todd started crying saying how that made his whole day to see us eating. That night they went home and Chris and I watched tv together.
and then he fell asleep
In the regular room they had an awful couch that you could sleep on. It wasnt comfy at all but a hell of a lot better than the first night in the ICU. Both times our rooms were right above the helipad. This was the view from my bed out onto State Street.
Jana and I passed time counting cars in line at the Costco parking lot
That next morning was full of promise and hopes of going home. The kid who shot Chris, Chris actually knows. He worked for the kids Grandpa and family. He has known the kid since he was little. Chris was really concerned with how the kid was doing and called him that day to let him know he was alright and that it was ok and just an accident. They had told us we SHOULD be able to go home but the doctors would be in around 9-12 and they would evaluate him and see if he could go home. The 2nd doctor who cut his eye (Dr Pargament) had recommended we see a retina specialist (Dr Faber) on Monday just to see what they wanted to do with his eye and then follow up with Dr Pargament on Tuesday pending we got released. The told us to call first thing in the morning and see if we could get in. I called Dr Fabers office at the Rocky Mountain Eye institute just a few blocks from the hospital. They said they had one opening at 1 and another at 2:40. I picked the 2:40 because you never get released on time!
We waited and waited. Chris and I went for a walk around the floor. The trauma team came in and said he was looking good. They needed to run a few tests and then we should be able to go home. He wanted to get out of the room so we started to walk down the cafeteria when the nurse stopped us and said they were ready to do his tests so we went back to the room before we even got in the elevator. We waited almost two hours and then they finally came and got him for the tests. They had to do another CT scan of his body to make sure he didnt have any blood leaks basically and that everything was ok. They also took him out for another chest xray. They had to wait for radiology to read his scan results and then we would be released. Our sweet nurse was sick of us Im sure. She kept coming back in the room asking if we needed anything and to tell us she was refreshing her screen every 5 minutes to see if his orders were on there to go home. After an hour or two they still werent processed. The trauma team came back in to meet with us. The Dr told us she bumped his labs up to the top of the list so we could get to leave. By this point its 1 and we are starting to worry if we are going to make it to his appointment. The doctors came back into the room at 2pm. They told us radiology still hadnt read his labs. They told us his xrays looked good. The bb in his ribs had moved to his spine but they werent concerned about it. The two in his head had moved back further into his hair line. The one in his shoulder was still sitting in his nerves. But as they put it all of them were in high real estate areas. They would do more damage trying to get them out then letting them stay there. They said the one in his arm and the two in his head would probably surface after a while and then they could lance them out. But he was too swollen to try and cut them out right now. They said radiology hadnt read his labs still but they would let us go home and if there was an emergency with his results they would call us back so that way we could make it to the eye appointment. We were great with that. They wheeled him out to the doors and we were outta there! Exhausted. Looking like hell. In the same clothes we wore yesterday but super happy! We loaded him up in the truck and headed to the eye drs.
We looked rough walking into the drs office. We met with the guy and he did all kinds of tests and looking. He told us that the bb had gone into his eye from the front (Chris got shot head on) and his eyeball had deflected it. It had gone up and over the top of his eye basically making a trench in the top of his eye but it didnt rupture the eye. It just ruptured all the blood vessels under the first layer of the eye and deformed his eye ball. The retina was somehow still attached. The bb had lodged at the end of the cone in the optic nerve in a bundle of muscles they believed. He said he was worried about scar tissue forming on the eyeball and causing problems. Chris has double vision right now because of they eye being so swollen and deformed. They said they have no idea how he even has vision let alone the same vision he had before (we think) It was a miracle. His eye ball deflected a bb coming at it head on and it went over and around the eyeball. Amazing.
From there we headed home. Taylor and Tammy met us at the house when we got there. Todd and Jana were sweet enough to go fill Chris's prescriptions for us and get my car from Ashleys and fill it up with gas. Not long after that Randi, Russell and Misty (from the fire dept) stopped by with dinner. Chinese food, Ice cream and a bag full of goodies. Tammy brought us two shepphard pies we can freeze and a plate full of cookies and goodies. As soon as they left my mom showed up with Kennedy. She didnt like looking at Daddy because his face was scary. Once she realized his eyeball was still in there and he was ok she was on his lap bawling. She kept saying now we cant go duck hunting anymore together. She didnt leave his lap all night long. Todd and Jana brought back his prescriptions along with a ham from one of his grandmas and she had a barbie for Kennedy too. Zack was also there. We had a full house the first night back.
The next day we had his follow up with Dr Parmagent at Jordan Commons. He is the Jr in the practice and had his Sr come in also for a second opinion which was the same as his. He said several times he wasnt a religious man but he has no idea how Chris has eye sight and it was a complete miracle. He said he has seen over 30 gun shots to the face and not one has had a salvageable eye let along eye sight. He said there was one millimeter of room for the BB to fit through going into his eye to not do damage and somehow a BB thats bigger than a millimeter made it though there! Its a true miracle and blessing. Everything that was bad had a miraculous change after he had a blessing.
That night the boy who shot him, his dad and Grandpa came over. You could tell they were pretty nervous about coming to our house. They werent sure what to expect. We werent mad with them at all. It was truly just an accident. We wanted him to feel ok and know it was alright.
We also had several other people stop by and bring us food. A smoked turkey, Maddox dinner. Willard Fire Dept had flowers delivered to our house. We had other members of the fire dept stop by. It was very sweet and heart warming.
Chris had been guiding and it had been raining. He was on the same area where the guy had been killed that week. He was wearing his clear safety glasses but the rain kept sticking to them. He took off his glasses, wiped them off and put them back on when the dogs went on point. The glasses fogged up so he took them off and put them in his pocket. The dogs went into flush the bird. He had the Grandpa and the kids older brother next to him. The kid and his dad were on the other side of a bush about 8 feet from Chris. Chris approached so that the bird would fly out one way that was safe. The bird hung up and jumped onto a branch. When the bird goes up Chris always hits the ground. He was pretty much on his stomach just so he doesnt get shot. The bird then changed and flew right at the kid. The dad screamed NO right as the kid shot. Chris was directly on the other side of the bird and took the shot head on. The bush and bird took a lot of the bbs. The kid was shooting 6 shot 3 inch 20 gauge. When the shot hit Chris he thought he had just been gun blasted. He went to get up and his arm didnt work. His head hurt really bad and then it started gushing blood. He told them Ive been shot. Call an ambulance. Grab my dogs. All 3 dogs were circled around him not letting anyone close to him. Chris called me at this point. He had to walk a ways off the hillside. One guy went to grab the truck. One guy was calling 911. The roads were really muddy so the ambulance couldnt make it to where they were at. Chris knew they needed to get back to the club house. He grabbed a kids hoodie and put it on his face and made it to the truck. They slipped and slid down the muddy road. He said he truly thought he was going to die. He could feel his body shutting down. He was starting to get really light headed and woozy. He said he kept telling himself he needed to hang on. They crested the hill and the ambulance was there. He said it was pure relief. Once the truck stopped he hopped out and went to climb into the ambulance all on his own. He put his leg up and couldnt climb in because his arm didnt work. They tried to help him but he had to kind of crawl inside. They loaded him on the stretcher, got his IVs started and started transporting him to the hospital. He said he tried so hard to not pass out in the ambulance but he could feel his body shutting down. The guy in the back of the ambulance kept talking to him and kept him focused until they got to the hospital.
We want to express our thank you to all those who responded, called, text, messaged, brought dinner, said prayers or sent us their well wishes. It truly means the world to us. We are so lucky to have him here with us. We are even luckier that he can see and is getting movement back in his arm. If he would have been standing when he got shot it probably would have killed him. Our parents were absolutely wonderful through this whole thing. We cant thank them enough. We had no idea we were so loved and cared for.. but trust us we dont want to have to find out again!!
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