Arezoo’s Blog

The recovery from my mountain climbing fall is yet to be fully complete. My 25 foot fall was a life changing experience making me realize how lucky I was to live through it. This post would not exist, if it were not for a branch on a fallen tree poking through my sleeve and holding me back from falling farther. Solid muscles are a good protection against bone injuries. I did lose a lot of blood during the hour and a half it took to climb back down and was taken to the emergency department at Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, NJ. I ended up in the pediatrics department with kind staff and walls adorned with large paintings of animals. Too bad they had to take all those X-rays. The two doctors in charge decided that a specialist had to be called in for the surgery.

Dr. Raffi Agopian arrived promptly. After the examination he informed me that the surgery room and anesthesiologist were not available for another two hours. We decided not to wait and to have the surgery with local anesthesia administered by him. It was a painful surgery, and Dr. Agopian did a superb job. Later I was pleased to be taken to a room with a window facing the moon. The next morning Dr. Agopian was the first person at my bedside even though he had to leave early to go to Baltimore for his mother’s hip surgery. He brought with him his colleague Dr. Joel Nizin. I had my follow up visit with Dr. Nizin who took out the tube a few days later. We had a nice chat and I found out that he and his family were one of the original residents of Stuyvesant Town in Manhattan.

Returning to Bear Mountain is at the top of my list after I have my large dose of sailing and swimming this summer…