Not a Nice Day
By Suellene Petersen / K6CPA, Public Information Coordinator
It seemed like it was going to be a nice day to take the dog for a walk and get some exercise. Glen Hannerman, KJ6BQK, is an educator in mid-county Monterey. As all of our educators know about the challenges to teaching has been in order to avoid spreading or being subject to Covid-19. To take a walk on a nice day seemed like a real stress releaser.
Glen is also a ham. Instead of taking a cell phone, Glen took his VHF/UHF radio and strapped it to his belt. He then put a leash on the dog and took off to go for a pleasant walk in the local park. All was proceeding as planned until the dog saw a squirrel. The dog also wanted to have a nice day and so the squirrel chase began. The dog was so excited at the prospect of catching the squirrel that it took off at a very fast pace and knocked Glen to the ground with great force. The ground just seemed to crumble under Glen and he fell and broke his hip.
There Glen lay in total agony and unable to get up. He was able to free his radio and decided to try and contact 911. It just so happened that another ham was monitoring the frequency. This good soul called Glen’s children and an emergency rescue was engaged. When the help finally arrived, Glen was in so much pain that he had to get a shot to lessen it so that he could be moved to the hospital for medical treatment.
For over a month, Glen has been recuperating in a nursing home in Salinas. The damage could have been worse and getting help could have taken a very long time. What was supposed to be a nice day turned out to be a challenging day. The outcome thus far is that Glen will be out of action during the time that his hip heals and thus is not able to be home to take care of his wife nor to follow up with his classes.
The most positive thing to recognize is that there was a ham out there listening to the frequency and was able to be a good Samaritan by getting help to a fellow ham. It shows that we don’t need table top exercises to prepare us for this kind of emergency. It takes a good hearted person who knows how to do the right thing in order to help someone who is injured and needs help.
