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Injured surfer describes collision
Thursday, July 17, 2008 | No comments posted.
PORTLAND (AP) — The Bend teenager who had an arm severed in a surfing accident this month remembers the pain he felt when a small boat overran him off Cape Kiwanda.
He also remembers something else: “I moved my shoulder and my arm felt light.”
Cole Ortega, 14, recalled the incident in an interview from his hospital bed in Portland, where he has been since the July 6 collision with the dory. Besides the severed arm, Ortega had broken ribs, a collapsed lung and a lacerated scalp.
A surgical team at Legacy Emanuel Hospital reattached the left arm, but it will be at least nine months before anyone knows how much use he will regain.
Though Ortega, who is right-handed, can’t yet move his fingers, an occasional pain travels up and down his arm, and he gets a tingling or burning sensation in his fingers. His doctor says those are good signs.
Ortega looks like a surfer — long and lanky with longish blond hair. He was born in Hawaii, and his family moved from Santa Barbara, Calif., to Central Oregon 61⁄2 years ago.
On the morning of July 6, he and other surfers were waiting to catch a wave as a dory was trying to make its way back to shore. It’s unclear exactly what happened next but the two met in a horrific way.
The boat apparently first struck the boy in the head and left side. And then the prop sliced off his left arm. Still encased in wetsuit with a glove on, it floated free.
He remembers his 16-year-old sister Chelsea’s boyfriend having the presence of mind to tie-off the stump with a surfboard’s ankle strap. He recalls that the men holding him were strong, and the waves crashing onto them were big.
One of them kept saying, “We have the arm. ... We have the arm.”
When he finally reached shore, his father, Charlie Ortega, was there, assuring him that he would be OK.
“I knew I would be when I heard my dad tell me to ‘be strong,”’ the boy said.
He was placed in the bed of a pickup truck, and soon in an ambulance, headed to the hospital in Tillamook.
“Why can’t I feel my fingers?” he asked his dad.
“It’s cut bad, Cole,” his father told him.
From there, it was a helicopter ride to Portland, where surgeons reattached Cole’s arm during a five-hour operation.
“It’s a miracle,” he said while glancing down at the fingers on his left hand Wednesday. “I’m glad I have my arm, 10 fingers and two hands. ... I’m shooting for the moon.”
He also remembers something else: “I moved my shoulder and my arm felt light.”
Cole Ortega, 14, recalled the incident in an interview from his hospital bed in Portland, where he has been since the July 6 collision with the dory. Besides the severed arm, Ortega had broken ribs, a collapsed lung and a lacerated scalp.
A surgical team at Legacy Emanuel Hospital reattached the left arm, but it will be at least nine months before anyone knows how much use he will regain.
Though Ortega, who is right-handed, can’t yet move his fingers, an occasional pain travels up and down his arm, and he gets a tingling or burning sensation in his fingers. His doctor says those are good signs.
Ortega looks like a surfer — long and lanky with longish blond hair. He was born in Hawaii, and his family moved from Santa Barbara, Calif., to Central Oregon 61⁄2 years ago.
On the morning of July 6, he and other surfers were waiting to catch a wave as a dory was trying to make its way back to shore. It’s unclear exactly what happened next but the two met in a horrific way.
The boat apparently first struck the boy in the head and left side. And then the prop sliced off his left arm. Still encased in wetsuit with a glove on, it floated free.
He remembers his 16-year-old sister Chelsea’s boyfriend having the presence of mind to tie-off the stump with a surfboard’s ankle strap. He recalls that the men holding him were strong, and the waves crashing onto them were big.
One of them kept saying, “We have the arm. ... We have the arm.”
When he finally reached shore, his father, Charlie Ortega, was there, assuring him that he would be OK.
“I knew I would be when I heard my dad tell me to ‘be strong,”’ the boy said.
He was placed in the bed of a pickup truck, and soon in an ambulance, headed to the hospital in Tillamook.
“Why can’t I feel my fingers?” he asked his dad.
“It’s cut bad, Cole,” his father told him.
From there, it was a helicopter ride to Portland, where surgeons reattached Cole’s arm during a five-hour operation.
“It’s a miracle,” he said while glancing down at the fingers on his left hand Wednesday. “I’m glad I have my arm, 10 fingers and two hands. ... I’m shooting for the moon.”
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