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Worth the Agony
That evening, Randy was wheeled into an operating room he remembers as having concrete walls and open windows to let in the island breeze. After numbing him from the waist down, doctors used a surgical hacksaw to smooth the broken ends of his femur, then pounded a rod down the middle of his bone to hold the two pieces together. Randy's teeth vibrated every time the hammer made contact. This can't be happening, Randy thought. He closed his eyes and prayed, God, get me through this.While he recuperated that weekend, he and Gwen waited to hear whether their insurance company would send a private jet to fly them home. He was struggling to breathe; bone marrow had leaked into his bloodstream from his broken femur, causing an embolism in his lungs. When an American air medical crew appeared at his bedside five days after his surgery, Randy burst into tears. "Howdy, sailor," said one of the crew members. "Need a lift?"
"I know they did the best they could with what they had in the Dominican Republic, and I'll always be grateful," says Randy. "But I was convinced that I was going to die, that I had to get out of that hospital and to the States to get sufficient care."
Back home in Utah, Randy quickly recovered and now bears only a long scar and a limp from his ordeal. His doctor says his femur is healing nicely, though Randy says the rod he received is no longer used in the United States. Janet's rib injury has almost healed, but it took her weeks to regain memory lost from the concussion. One good thing came from her experience: Years of outdoor life had left Janet's hips out of joint, but "whale tail therapy whacked me into alignment," she says. She and Randy both say they'd love to return to Silver Bank someday, but next time, Janet will make sure she's watching from a safer distance.
"I don't blame the whale," Randy says. "We got in the way. We were in her environment." He pauses and laughs. "What happened to me was -- literally -- a fluke." All of the agony he endured was worth it, says Randy, to spend a few magical days swimming with the earth's largest creatures. "I'd go again," he says, "in a heartbeat."
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