RECOVERING NEW BRAUNFELS MAN RETURNS TO ROCKSPRINGS TO OFFER THANKS

On April 2, 2016, David Burleson (62 years young) was standing in the front loader of a tractor filling a deer feeder when something went horriblely wrong.  Burleson was at his ranch on CR 230 when he fell 8 feet to the ground landing on his shoulder, neck, back, and head. It was later determined that Mr. Burleson had been unconscious for almost 3 hours.

When Mr. Burleson came to, he was unable to move his body but he was able to make a cell phone call to his wife in New Braunfels, TX and advise her of the accident.  In turn, she called 911 to report the incident and and assisted in guiding The Edwards County Sheriff’s Office and Edwards County EMS to their property.  There are several feeders located on Mr. Butleson's ranch but only two of those feeders have cell phone coverage and luckily this feeder was one of the two.

The Edwards County Sheriff’s Office was the first to arrive and discovered Mr. Burleson lying on his back next to his tractor with had multiple life threatening injuries that were later confirmed at the hospital as being a large impact injury to the base of the skull causing a severe concussion, five broken ribs adjacent to the spine, two crushed vertebrae, a shoulder and collar bone contusion.

Edwards County EMS Paramedics, Rachel Escamilla, Terry Brooks and Loren Shivers arrived at the location and stabilized Mr. Burleson who was then airlifted to University Hospital in San Antonio. While Mr. Burleson was being treated in the field, his spouse began her travel from New Braunfels to Rocksprings so she could be with her ailing spouse but do to the quick thinking of the Edwards County Sheriff’s Office who had been communicating with her and providing her updates on her spouse to ease her fears, she paused her travels in San Antonio and was diverted to University Hospital to await the arrival of her husband.  And in May 11, 2016 a person entered into the Edwards County Sheriff's Office and into the office of CPT Volkmann and stated, "Do you remember me?" CPT Volkmann replied that he did indeed looked familiar.  Mr. Burleson said “I’m the man that that fell from the tractor.”  Sheriff Elliott walked in at that moment and we both stared at Mr. Burleson is pure astonishment because we had feared the worst due to the injuries he had sustained and Sheriff Elliott related that we certainly didn’t expect to see such a speedy recovery.  Mr. Burleson was walking as if the incident had merely never happened and related he didn't remember much except for the kindness, professionalism, quick response he and his wife had received during such a tragic accident and that if he hadn't been so quickly found and treated by the experts in the field, the incident might have been worse.  He related to Sheriff Elliott that he drove to Rocksprings just to offer his thanks, embrace us, and to let us know just how very appreciative to the service that he received from EMS and the Sheriff’s Office on that day.  Sheriff Elliott stated, "Yesterday we rendered aid in a time of need and today we made forever friends.  Paths are crossed in all the trails we blaze in our busy lives but sometimes we pause just long enough to make a difference in someone's life".