Gone Fishin'

I saw a patient tonight at the emergency room who had fallen off a cliff, drowned, and was spectacularly brought back to life by his teenage owner. That's the story, at least, and he's sticking to it.

Reynolds is a typical young, knucklehead black lab that went out fishing with her owner today at Denton Creek. The boys had hiked out a bit to get to a deeper part of the river to fish. Reynolds was, as usual, having a great time and was running around as they hiked down beside the creek to find the right spot.

Somehow Reynolds managed to loose her footing while she was walking along the bank and tumbled down to the creek below. She apparently hit her head on the way down and when she hit the water, she was stunned and immediately sunk. Her owner, Joe, jumped off the bank into the water and had to go under to get her back to the surface. He swam back to the bank and by then she was not breathing and her eyes had gone blank.

Joe somehow kept his cool, lay her out on the bank and began to squeeze her chest when he noticed she wasn't breathing. He kept with her for a minute or two and she suddenly started breathing again. She hacked up some water and was disoriented for a few minutes. They both had to find a way out of the mud and hump it back up the hill to get out. It was then a hike back out of the woods and to the car.

By the time they got to me at the emergency room, Reynolds was 100% herself. She seems absolutely fine on examination. I'm sending home a couple days antibiotic to protect her from any pneumonia from inhaling the creek water.

In the initial story, the fall was down a short hill into a creek. By the time I published this story the fall was twenty five feet and the water three feet deep. By tomorrow, I'm sure it will be a fifty foot fall from a rocky cliff into the deep, black, frigid waters below. It doesn't matter. It's a really cool story and deserves to be told. Way to go, Joe.

AMH