Disaster strikes OG on Statia...

Geez..accidents on OG tours..it is almost a regular part of our trips it seems! Maybe we are a bit too daring. I don't know..today's was just "one wrong step" ..that could have ended up being much much worse.

Before Bruce's accident the hike on the trail up the Quill and down the crater was great! It was not easy and the sun was blazing and the sweat pouring..but we had enough water and we are all healthy enough for this kind of thing. The group consisted of six of us: Danny, Bruce, Greg, Hans, Oscar and myself. After about an hour of hiking we had finally reached the top. Bruce took some beautiful pictures.



Right now he is still in the hospital. He is ok though! No worries. He will be just fine and might only have to lay in his bed for a few days and keep his leg up. I will get to what happened don't worry.

After enjoying the view from the top Greg lead us down the trail towards the bottom of the crater. It was cool to see how the plant-life changed suddenly..becoming more of a tropical rain-forest. We even passed a long black snake of which I do not know the name of right now. Actually..this is where it all went wrong. We were almost at the bottom when we stopped to take pictures of this snake. We continued on and Bruce was at the back of the group. The trail was very challenging. Big rocks and boulders, many of them quite loose, steep as well. We then heard Bruce scream and the sound of a rolling boulder. We turned around and what we saw next made us run as quickly as we could to him. He was laying underneath a HUGE boulder. He was screaming in fright. It was right on top both his legs. We all tried moving it. He was screaming in pain and fright. It would not move! All of us went for it and managed to get it off of him. I cannot say how heavy it was but 5 reasonably strong guys had a tough time getting it off him. Like I said, it was huge!

Hans quickly wrapped a towel tightly around his leg. The wound was big and deep. The blood was pouring out of it. It was not enough. Greg ripped the other towel into thinner pieces and Hans made it work. The bleeding stopped. Hans was covered in blood as were the rest of us...though not as much as Hans. Hans, you stepped up to the plate bro! Greg, you are also the man. They were both very quick with getting his leg tightly wrapped to stop the bleeding.

Bruce was in shock. We calmed him down. We found out he could move his legs. He did not think they were broken, but he did feel very weak as he had lost a good bit of blood. Hans and Greg ran ahead to call for help as there was no reception where we were almost at the bottom of the crater. Oscar, Danny and myself stayed behind with Bruce. He could walk on it , ever so gently. It was a tough climb back up the crater even without your legs working for you. Many loose rocks. It was probably the most physical challenge of Bruce's life. We finally got to the top and started our way down as we decided the more distance we could cover the better as the bleeding had stopped and there was no telling how long it might be before help would get there. We also had no phone so there was just no telling what was up at the bottom of the Quill. So we trekked on. With a big branch for support Bruce made his way down the hill at a snail's pace it seemed. It was hard to tell how long this would take. We just kept going. We had enough water for Bruce and he really needed it.

About 2 hours into the walk, we finally saw the first three guys show up to help. Mega D and his friend plus a guy who takes care of the trails who brought lots of water. They told us that help was on its way and that the rest of the walk would actually take us a few hours still at this pace. Oscar and I then thought that maybe we should have built a stretcher from branches and vines like Bear Gryllis would have on Man vs Wild. We just thought we were a lot closer and Bruce thought he could make it. So then the fire department and police showed up with a stretcher and about 7 men. They cut down a straight branch and braced his leg with it and put him into the stretcher. Now it was a matter of hurrying down the trail carrying Bruce. Everybody took turns as it was quite exhausting..we had enough man power to keep switching. It was a strong team effort. A good 15 minutes of this and then we came to the part where the police had made it up the trail with a 4WD jeep. They managed somehow to get it turned around..then we put Bruce in. I got in the back with him. We all knew he would be ok but he had to get his leg dealt with as fast as possible. We got to the bottom of the trail, pulled him out of the jeep and into the ambulance.

bruce in the hospital

At the hospital they stitched him up. He had more than one wound but one of them was quite big and deep right behind his left knee. The nurse told him the last serious accident on the Quill happened over ten years ago. They gave him some strong pain-killers and a pair of crutches. Then he met us back at the hotel where we had to leave right away to catch our Winair flight back to SXM.

Now it is the next day. Bruce is happy to be back at the L'Esplanade. Besides that incident, Statia was wonderful. Even for Bruce who says he is definitely going to be returning maybe on his honeymoon. He is now at the doctor's office who is changing his bandages and checking his wounds. He woke up in quite some pain today, throbbing pain. This is just his body trying to heal itself though.

Bruce, we love you. You said thanks a million times already and you even mentioned how you felt the word had no meaning in this situation..well we just did what any friends would have bro. We hope you recover quickly. You definitely had an angel by your side. We all know it could have been much much worse. The moments between hearing that boulder come down and us reaching you and seeing you underneath it...I think for most of us that was the scariest situation we have ever had to deal with. At least for myself it was. And for you..having your life flash in front of your eyes like that..we know how intense it was and is for you bro.

Life is precious, live it right!

Michael Maidwell


this was the boulder..while i was trying to push it down the mountain as it was still loose where it lay..it took a lot of rocking back and forth but i finally managed to push it down.