Billy won't be pole vaulting in this event, as much as he loves the sport. A couple of weeks ago, he fell when he thought he had cleared the bar, but hadn't yet. His head was padded by the mat, but he struck his back on the concrete, hard. His coach and EMTs on hand immediately immobilized him for a quick ambulance ride to the hospital. A friend of his accompanied Sandy and Johnie to the hospital and took care of tweeting, texting and and Facebooking to keep everybody posted on his condition. Soon Sandy and Johnie were getting phone calls from friends across the country. His sister Leslie got a nasty shock when she sat down in an internet cafe in Vietnam to check her messages, and she, too, phoned home. After the docs confirmed bruising, but no broken bones and no internal bleeding, he was discharged from the hospital close to midnight. Being a kid, he was starving, but the drive-through at McDonald's was open. The clerk, seeing him in the car, said "Hey, aren't you the kid who was hurt at the pole vault this afternoon?" Billy didn't even know the clerk, but that's a small town for you. Everybody knows you even when they don't.
Great recovery, Billy!
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