Emergency situations can happen in a flash-- just ask father and SAM Medical customer Colter Hansen. He and his family were in the midst of an adventurous tour across the U.S.-- 50 states in 50 weeks-- when a sudden accidental injury occurred to his young daughter. Colter shares his story:

“We were about halfway through our 50 states in 50 weeks tour with my wife and our three daughters. We had our RV set up at our next stop- my wife had asked to set up the hammocks as it was nap time for the girls.

What felt like moments after setting up the hammocks, my five-year-old daughter stood up crying and holding her arm. You could tell she had broken it. She had rolled out of her hammock, fallen and broken her ulna. We immediately went to our climbing gear and grabbed the SAM® Splint. We always knew that we would need a first responder type of kit, and the SAM® Splint was an essential part of it. In fact, we have carried a SAM® Splint for the last five or six years. It’s our go-to!

Having a First Aid Kit in case something happens is important. We are now even more grateful for it because the SAM® Splint secured her arm not only before we rushed to the hospital, but during the hospital visit when the PA did not splint it correctly. My wife is a pharmacist and I have taken many first aid courses over the years so we both knew it wasn’t done right. We ended up putting the SAM® Splint over the other one until we could make it to the children’s hospital in Jackson, Mississippi hours away so it could be reapplied correctly.

The SAM® Splint stayed on for three days- she was in some pain from the trauma to her arm, but otherwise felt okay. Recovery with a cast on to off was about 5.5 weeks. Now she’s doing great, she’s going back on the monkey bars! She actually didn’t want to stop climbing the rock wall with her broken arm- she would scale up the wall with one arm. She likes to be a part of the action.”