A Close Call

By: Wensley Guthrie

Texas State freshman is rescued by the quick thinking of both a local fisherman, and paramedics from a thirty-four foot drop off of a running trail overlooking Canyon Lake this past Thursday. What started out as just a normal day for eighteen year-old Maggie Douglas, would soon turn into something from a nightmare; as an avid runner, the young woman set out on one of her favorite trails along Canyon Lake as part of her training regimen for a marathon she was hoping to compete in. What happened next will surely haunt her dreams for a longtime to come. “I was so scared. All I remember is falling and waking up in a hospital. I am just so thankful that someone saw me fall,” says Douglas after the incident. She definitely caught a stroke of luck by falling where she did, seeing as it is a spot frequented by local fisherman Randy Davis just about everyday. When questioned about the first heart stopping moments of the freak accident Davis said, “She hit the water hard. When I seen her fall, I immediately called 911. I tried to drive my boat over to her, but the water was extremely rough that day and those rocks don’t make it any easier. Luckily, EMS came and was able to get her out faster than I could. I’m just glad to hear she’s going to be OK.” And lucky Douglas was indeed, for according to the thirty-one year old EMS worker Tom Henderson, it was one of the more serious falls he’s seen and he didn’t have much hope that the young woman was going to make it.  The quick reaction on Davis’s part, as well as the professional efficiency of the EMS team landed Douglas in the capable hands of Blain Holland, a lead surgeon from Kyle, Texas, gave the tenacious girl the fighting chance that she needed. Aside from non-life threatening injuries to her ribs and arm, what worried doctors the most was Douglas’s head injury. She was put into a medically induced coma to alleviate some of the swelling in her brain, and to everyone’s shock and delight, she woke up on Sunday with no apparent permanent damage. “We feel she will make a full recovery. I don’t know that she’ll be running that marathon like she planned but maybe next year,” says Dr. Holland.