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Fundraising account set for local cowboy Oats

A GoFundMe account has been set up for a Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation man who was badly hurt last week while training a young horse.

A 5-year-old horse slammed Myron Oats against the saddle horn last Wednesday, an injury that caused him to be transported to three hospitals, including a urologist at Seattle's Harborview Medical Center.

"The horse was bucking so hard he threw me on top of the saddle horn," Oats said Tuesday. "He slammed my groin."

Oats' hospital tour included Havre's Northern Montana Hospital right after the injury. From there he was flown by

Mercy Flight to Benefis in Great Falls, and then to Harborview, where he was treated until he was released and arrived back home Monday. Oats was seeing a pain specialist in Great Falls Tuesday.

Oats said he has Medicaid and the GoFundMe account is to cover living and traveling expenses. The "Myron Oats aka JR. Roping accident" account was created by Camey Bertolino, a friend who works with Oats at Bear Paw Livestock in Chinook.

"Myron is the kinda guy who would stop everything at a drop of a hat and come help a neighbor, gather their strays, fix fence or go to a basketball game," Bertolino said on the GoFundMe page. "He comes to work

on Fridays all the way from Rocky Boy to Chinook with a truckload of friends who want to put in a day's wages ... . He is a very welcomed sight to see."

Oats said he may have incurred permanent damage as a result of the accident, but he also hopes he will recover, as he had almost done so from a similar accident in 2011.

"That one was worse," Oats said, adding he spent four months in the hospital and a year in a wheelchair after the 2011 accident.

He was finally getting back in a rhythm, he said, working and moving around, before last week's incident.

"I'm hoping everything can be fixed," he added.

 

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