In the world of emergency response, you might not get the opportunity to say thank you. But thanks to Facebook, the Park County Sheriff’s Office got just that.
This Monday, the Sheriff’s Office posted a summary of their evacuation of 42-year-old Richard Dvorak from the Broken Heart Ice Flow after he fell and broke several bones during an ice climb. On that post, there was a public comment from Richard Dvorak himself, from his hospital room at the Billings Clinic.
Dvorak says, “I cannot express enough gratitude and thanks to all who showed up to this rescue call. Cody Regional Wilderness Medical Team, Bighorn County SAR, Cody Regional SAR, other ice climbers in the area, my great friends who were with me from the time of incident. There were a lot of faces I did not recognize putting efforts forth on my behalf. To faces I knew and those I did not, I thank you with all my heart for helping me in my helpless state.Even though I spent much of the lower evacuation in a severely dazed state, much of my real emotion was feeling overwhelmed by the drive humans have to give so much to join in a massive collective effort to help somebody out who they may not even know out of a life threatening environment to safety.”
Dvorak’s pelvis is fractured in three places, fractures in his sacrum and L1 vertebra, and a broken rib, but he requires no surgery and should make a full recovery in about three months.
