ditch he was, in any respect Erick and I saw the paralysis beginning to
slow his momentum and at the same time his arms, which he used to
balance himself, began to fl ail up-and-down as he looked to steady
himself. Erick and I called to Kurt, encouraging him to balance and
keep moving, but it was too late.
I recall vividly as Kurt looked back at me just before he fell. It was
as if time began to stand still. We were suddenly operating in slow
motion. I can still see the fear in his eyes and the hopelessness that he
knew that there was nothing else he could do. I screamed for Kurt to
keep moving, to balance, and not give up. But his eyes told me everything.
He was going down.
The sound of Kurt falling onto the boulders below will forever
be burned into my memory. I can still hear it 40+ years later. Erick
and I jumped up and down on opposite sides of the ditch, holding
our heads and screaming down for Kurt to answer. There was no
response. Simultaneously, Erick and I began scrambling down our
respective banks of the ditch to reach where Kurt lie below. We came
upon his unconscious body and through our screams and tears tried
to wake him so we could all just go dust ourselves off and go home.
Kurt didn’t respond.
I told Erick to stay with Kurt and I scrambled back up the bank and
ran as fast as I had ever run to get to my house and tell my parents
what had happened. As I came fl ying through the screen door my
parents knew immediately that something had gone terribly wrong.
Between having no breath from running and the fear in my soul I
could barely muster the words, “Pipe, Kurt.”
Before the breathless words could part my lips, my parents
grabbed me by the scruff of my neck and we were in the car racing
to the pipe section of the ditch. We parked on the street adjacent to
the section closest to the pipe and my parents and I then sprinted to
the pipe. Upon reaching the pipe my parents found Erick holding Kurt,
both of whom were covered in blood from the serious head wound
that Kurt had sustained in the fall. Remarkably Kurt was now awake
and in a somewhat stunned manner, asked why we were all standing
there staring at the pair of them.
My father scrambled down the side of the ditch, whisked Kurt into
his arms as he traversed back up the bank of the ditch. My mother,
8 | DALLAS MEDICAL JOURNAL • March 2022
who had the foresight to grab a kitchen towel before we jettisoned
the house, immediately put pressure on Kurt’s head wound. Minutes
later we were on our way to the hospital, which was approximately
20 minutes from our home. It seemed like an eternity to arrive in the
driveway of the emergency entrance. My father picked Kurt up again
and ran inside. My mother, Erick and I stayed in the lobby of the hospital
while they tended to Kurt and attempted to reach his parents.
The result of our misadventure that day was that Kurt suff ered a
serious concussion and a head wound that required multiple stitches.
Fortunately, there was no brain swelling, but Kurt’s parents later
shared that the physicians who cared for him indicated that he was
extremely lucky that his head trauma did not result in worse acute injuries
or long-term brain damage. We were extremely lucky that day.
Kurt fully recovered after a few weeks and soon we were all back
in the nature preserve chasing critters and discovering new areas.
But there was one section of the preserve that we avoided for many
years, and that was the pipe.
While a painful memory, this childhood adventure came fl ashing
forward to me when I learned that we would be featuring the latest
advances in brain injury care and prevention in this edition of DMJ.
It is an important conversation that many of us take for granted
these days. Today, as parents, I imagine that none of us would ever
fathom allowing our children to ride a bike, skateboard, or be in a
sport without a properly fi tted helmet. There also has been tremendous
advances in brain injury prevention and care since that fateful
day in 1979. I am so appreciative that our Dallas physicians are
advancing this science and the public health education around brain
injury prevention. Promoting public health awareness and prevention
strategies will hopefully ensure that future generations of families
don’t have to endure the same trauma that my good friend Kurt
experienced. DMJ
Jon R. Roth, MS, CAE
DCMS EVP/CEO