Article published December 16, 2007
INJURED ARCHER, FATHER, AND SAMARITAN REUNITE
A Priceless gift: Man saves life of Point Place deer hunter
Michael F. Kane, from left, and Ryan Price, look on as Michael R. Kane displays the knife with which he cut a femoral artery.
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To Michael F. Kane of Haskins, Ryan Price of Swanton might be a Good Samaritan, a heaven-sent angel, or a hero.
Or all of the above.
That is because Mr. Price, 25, recently saved the life of Mr. Kane’s son, Michael R. Kane, 37, of Point Place, after a hunting accident in Fulton County.
“Without Ryan, my boy would have bled to death,” asserts the elder Kane.
His son had been field-dressing a deer after a successful bowhunt at Goll Woods State Nature Preserve near Archbold when his knife twisted, severing the femoral artery in his left leg. This type of injury to this major blood vessel can cause fatal bleeding in minutes if untended.
But the story ends well. The younger Mr. Kane returned home Tuesday to complete his recovery after discharge from St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center, to which he had been airlifted by Life Flight after emergency care at Archbold Hospital.
The elder Mr. Kane said that on Dec. 7 he accompanied his son to Goll Woods State Nature Preserve, where the younger man had been selected for a special archery deer-hunt. An overabundance of vegetation-munching deer in the area has threatened the preserve’s rare-plant communities, prompting special hunts.
Michael R. Kane, right, keeps his injured leg elevated while he chats with his dad, Michael F., at left, and rescuer Ryan Price.
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The younger Mr. Kane, a hunter for 20 years, had drawn a two-week slot on the preserve and was thrilled that he had been selected.
“I dropped him off and went to hunt in a private woods,” said the father, who was going to hunt in an adjacent hunting area.
Later his son called on a cell-phone, reporting he had shot a deer with his crossbow and needed help getting it out of the woods. Mr. Kane rejoined his son at the preserve and after reaching the downed deer, he proceeded back to their truck to carry out equipment and return to help take out the animal.
The younger Mr. Kane proceeded to dress the animal. In an attempt to break open the chest cavity, the knife followed along an odd angle of the bone and came out and severed the major artery in his left leg.
All the while the elder Mr. Kane was unable to locate his son.
“I was calling him [on a cell-phone] and he never answered me. I got to the ranger station, where I left the truck, and he [finally] called on the cell phone and said, ‘Dad, I’m hurt bad.’”
“I called 911 and ran back to where he was located. When I got there, there was a young hunter [Mr. Price]. He had my son lying on his back with a tourniquet tied high on his left leg. He had cut his femoral artery.”
Ryan Price, the rescuer, gets a hug of thanks from Michael R. Kane as he arrives at the injured man’s house in Point Place. Looking on at the left is Nicole Kane, Michael’s wife.
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It turned out that Mr. Price also was selected to use Goll Woods that day, and luckily he decided to hunt. “He was hunting in another section and heard a loud yell and then he heard someone crying out louder,” the elder Mr. Kane said.
After a rescue squad arrived and the injured hunter was taken to Archbold Hospital, Mr. Price stayed on to collect the Kanes’ gear that had been left behind. Later he visited the younger Kane at St. Vincent, to which the injured hunter had been airlifted for emergency surgery.
Mr. Price said he was in a tree stand about 600 yards from Mr. Kane.
“He and I actually were the only ones out there, so it worked out good for us.”
The Swanton hunter had taken a deer, a doe, and tagged and field-dressed it about a half hour prior to the accident. But rather than leave, he decided to continue hunting, as another permit allowed him to do. He was hoping to bag a buck, and that is why he was on hand to hear the call for help.
“At first I thought it was someone messing around, making noise,” Mr. Price said. But when he investigated, he realized a serious accident had occurred.
Michael R. Kane displays the knife with which he cut himself while dressing the animal that he had shot with a crossbow.
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“When I found Mike, he had his hand on his leg for pressure.”
Mr. Price quickly cut up part of his own hunting shirt, using the strips and a stout stick to fashion a tourniquet. “His cell phone didn’t have any service out there [at the time]. Mine did and I called 911.”
At the time he did not know that the elder Mr. Kane also was alerting an emergency squad.
“The surgeon said without the tourniquet, in five minutes my kid would have been dead,” the elder Mr. Kane said. “We’ve got good hunters, people who get involved. Especially when someone is need.”
Mr. Price said that a bond of friendship has formed between him and the younger Mr. Kane. Soon, he said, he and his fiancee, Linsay Miller, plan to dine out with his new buddy and his spouse, Nicole.
Mrs. Kane said this has been “an incredibly emotional time. My father-in-law and I both want to yell it to the rooftops that Ryan Price is a hero to us. As a prior ICU-trauma nurse and now a nurse practitioner, I know that had he not been there and intervened as Mike had asked, I would be a widow and our three children would be without a wonderful father. There is no indication this was a careless action. Mike has been a hunter for 20 years and is a strong advocate of hunter safety and education. Every room in our home practically has some connection to hunting reading materials. Hunting is his passion.”
Mrs. Kane said her husband remained calm despite the terrible injury and attributed his calm, collected presence of mind and a knowledge of what to do to his training when he served as an army medic.
As for the elder Mr. Kane, Mr. Price “was God-sent. In my eyes, he’s nothing but a hero. He just stayed right there with him.”
Contact Steve Pollick at:spollick@theblade.comor 419-724-6068.
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