Broken, but bouncing back
<p>Jeff Marsan broke both of his wrists when he fell of a horse Aug. 31 after it was spooked after stepping onto a bee hive. The single father of three has been out of work since the accident while he recovers from surgeries where doctors repaired the broken bones with pins and screws.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - Jeff Marsan is a durable, tough, truck driver.
Not much can bring him down, or keep him down.
A bucking horse, however, is a different story.
"I don't usually break bones," he said.
The 39-year-old broke both wrists in an Aug. 31 horseriding accident near his Blue Creek Road home. He has been recovering since and has been unable to work, leaving him with a mountain of medical bills and relying on his parents and family to get by each day.
"He's doing better," said his mom, Shirley.
Things can't get much worse since that sunny day when he went for a horse ride with his oldest daughter. It was about 2 p.m. when "Little Bit," a "very good" horse Marsan has ridden before, reared up, scared by a swarm of bees.
It bucked, Marsan went airborne.
"It felt like I was 30 feet in the air," he said.
The crash landing shattered his wrists, smashed his right big toe and left abrasions on his forehead.
At Kootenai Medical Center, doctors needed nine screws and a plate in each arm to piece the splintered wrists together.
Recovery has been slow.
Jeff and his family live next door to his parents. It's tough, he said, to let others do so much for him, but he appreciates their help.
"We're a really tight family," he said.
He has been trying to use his arms whenever he can - "Whatever don't hurt me," he said - but the pain can still be "intense" and he wears braces.
He won't be able hit the road anytime too soon, either. He'll sometimes put 600 miles on his rig, delivering wood chips and other wood products.
Because he doesn't have insurance, Marsan said he's looking at around $30,000 in medical bills. He has gotten a little help from the state, and is hoping the county can provide some assistance, too.
Either way, his family is facing some tough times.
"I'm not sure what I'm going to do," he said.
The only thing he can do, really, is wait for a doctor's OK to return to driving. He's hoping that's soon.
"Bills don't ever stop when a guy gets hurt," he said Monday.