By Stacie Jones
On Aug. 15, 2011, at 1:28 p.m.,
Greg Nordfelt’s
life changed forever.
Greg; his wife, Laura; and a family friend were
three days into a motorcycle tour from their home-
town of Salt Lake City, Utah, through the canyons
of northern Idaho. Greg had been battling a bout of
food poisoning caused by his previous night’s trout
dinner. Determined not to let a bad fish foil their
travel plans, Greg pushed through the nausea, want-
ing to stay on track that afternoon toward the trio’s
next destination.
But instead, the decision to continue riding
altered Greg’s course in a way that he never could
have imagined.
Approximately 60 miles south of Coeur d’Alene,
on U.S. Highway 95, Laura, who was riding her
own bike, noticed Greg slow his Harley Davidson
from 60 mph to 30 mph and veer toward the road’s
shoulder. Laura followed, assuming he was braking
to tend to his upset stomach. Then she saw Greg’s
head suddenly drop to the side; he had passed out.
Moments later, she watched in horror as her hus-
band’s bike careered over the embankment, hurling
Greg onto a bed of sharp rocks.
T H E D E T O U R
At 3:20 p.m., Life Flight landed with 49-year-old
Greg on the helipad atop Kootenai Health in Coeur
d’Alene. His injuries were severe and extensive:
several deep open wounds, a fractured femur
and shattered foot, and a dislocated and broken
kneecap.
Although Greg had been wearing a helmet at the
time of the crash, the impact was too great. He was
diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury.
“He had an acute subdural hematoma with com-
pression of the surface of the left half of his brain,”
said William Ganz, M.D., the attending neurosur-
geon that cared for Greg at Kootenai.
A subdural hematoma, Dr. Ganz explained, is a
blood clot that forms between the inside of the skull
A Change in Course
C R A S H S U R V I V O R
T H A N K S K O O T E N A I
H E A LT H F O R
S T E E R I N G H I M
D O W N T H E R O A D
T O R E C O V E R Y
Greg and his
wife, Laura,
before his
accident on a
trip from
Salt Lake City
to northern
Idaho.
Courtesy of Greg Nordfelt
16
TRAUMA CARE
