Thanks to the quick response of the medical personnel on hand for the week-long event, Waltz was able to return to the arena Wednesday night to watch his fellow competitors. He underwent surgery Monday afternoon to have a titanium rod inserted in his leg to stabilize his broken femur, the largest bone in the body, but likely will be able to continue his rodeo career.
"It kind of sucks — I wish I was still competing this week," Waltz said. "The doctors said my leg is cowboy-proof' now."
A broken femur is a potentially dangerous injury because of the blood supply to that part of the body — it is possible to bleed to death from such an injury. Waltz's father, Dave, was effusive in his praise of the staff both on the grounds at McGee Park and at San Juan Regional Medical Center for
"The hospital here is great," the elder Waltz said. "The doctors were excellent. I was impressed, and the Kansas Orthopaedic people — those people are the best."
According to Ed Horvat, chairman of the emergency medical services committee for the Tres Rios Rodeo Association which is hosting this year's event, Waltz's injury ranks among some of the worst he's seen, dating back to when Farmington hosted the event in 2002 and 2003.
"One year, we had a cowboy come in with a fairly serious head injury," Horvat said. "I think he was eventually OK, but they were concerned about him for a while. We've also seen broken ribs and things like that."
This year's rodeo has already seen as many athletes transported to the hospital as the previous two times Farmington hosted the event combined — though that still means "only" three athletes have had to make the trip in an ambulance. Two athletes — Louisiana saddle bronc rider Jared Bagnaud and Minnesota pole bender Presley Hamann — were taken from the arena in ambulances Thursday for precautionary measures. Many others have come through either SJRMC's emergency room or its urgent care facility throughout the week with assorted minor ailments.
"There's been a lot of bumps and bruises and banged up cowboys," Horvat said.
Beyond just providing ambulance service, San Juan Regional Medical Center is also responsible for running the first aid station located on the midway. Horvat said the station has seen 80 people come through since Sunday, with everything ranging from cuts, blisters and twisted ankles to dehydration and nosebleeds stemming from Farmington's dry climate.
"We've had people come in after being stung by a wasp, and some people have come down with flu-like symptoms," Horvat said. "Nothing too serious has come through."
Dr. Chris Miller with Kansas Orthopaedic Services leads a team of approximately a dozen athletic trainers who also have been on-site at McGee Park throughout the week. Primarily responsible for "maintenance treatments," as Miller put it, the Wichita, Kan., crew opens the doors to its trailer an hour before each performance so competitors can get any tape, braces or padding they might need to make them more comfortable.
"We're not really meant to replace an emergency room," he said. "We don't have an X-ray or anything like that, but if a kid strains their knee, we can help them ice it or help them work on their range of motion."
As Miller spoke to an NHSFR staffer about the status of an injured competitor, another walked into the trailer complaining of a popping sensation near his shoulder blade. A quick look inside the trailer revealed a veritable smorgasbord of young cowboys, cowgirls and bullfighters getting various kinks worked out through taping, bracing and icing.
Miller, working at his 13th NHSFR, also is often called upon when a competitor goes down in the arena to assess the severity of an injury, helping to make the decision as to whether the athlete can be successfully treated on-site. If he deems that the athlete has a more severe injury than he and his crew can handle, Miller will summon an ambulance with a simple wave of his black cowboy hat.
"The first thing I'm looking at is the mechanism of injury," Miller said. "We look at what happens — did they fall? Did they get kicked? Did the animal go down? Then, we take that information to anticipate what to look for when we go out to evaluate them. If they're seriously injured, our course of action is to evaluate them quickly, determine the main injury, and then activate the emergency medical personnel and get them to the hospital where they can be properly treated as quickly as possible."
Thanks to the hard work of people like Miller, Horvat and those who work with them, cowboys like Waltz know that even a serious injury doesn't have to be a career-threatening one.
"They were a lot of help," he concluded. "My sister just went through surgery for a broken femur, and she didn't have the help that I had. They made it a lot easier for me."
Darren Vaughan: dvaughan@daily-times.com
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