Thursday, February 26, 2009
Additional Bloggers
I have invited a few that have also been in contact and will be in contact with Donna to blog here also. I hope they can also share some stories of their time with Donna. If you see new posts from new people, it is because I selected them to update also or just share about their moments with her, post a picture or whatever, when they get a moment.
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Travelling cowgirl Donna Byrne was hospitalized in Louisiana yesterday (April 9) with a serious leg infection.
ReplyDeletehttp://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/apr/08/081626/traveling-cowgirl-hospital/
Traveling cowgirl in Louisiana hospital
News Channel 8 file photo by PAUL LAMISON
Donna Byrne, 44, loaded up her two horses and headed for Texas after she lost her job.
By LINDSAY PETERSON | The Tampa Tribune
Published: April 8, 2009
Updated: 04/08/2009 04:26 pm
Related Links
Previous coverage
Photos: Going West
Web site set up for Byrne
Travelling cowgirl Donna Byrne was hospitalized in Louisiana yesterday with a serious leg infection.
Doctors are giving her intravenous antibiotics and pain medicine, said Donnis Birkicht, who visited her this morning at Huey P. Long Medical Center, in Pineville, La.
Byrne asked Birkicht for two things, Chinese food and the latest issue of Western Horseman magazine. "She was very insistent that it be the latest issue," Birkicht said.
Byrne made it to Natchez, Miss., on Monday and was staying with a family who noticed her walking with a limp.
She wouldn't let anyone look at it at first, said one of the family members, Delana Tradewell, in a post on a website following Byrne's trek, cowgirlsjourney.webs.com. Finally Tradewell's husband persuaded Byrne to take off her boot and was alarmed at how bad it looked.
Byrne didn't want to go to the doctor, but the Tradewells took her anyway. "One look, and he sent her to the hospital," Delana wrote.
Later in the day, Byrne was taken by ambulance to the Pineville hospital, about 90 miles from Natchez.
Byrne, 44, started out in Arcadia about 10 weeks ago. She'd lost her job working on a small ranch.
Then she lost her home when she couldn't pay rent. So she loaded up her two horses and headed for Texas, where she hoped to find a job on a large ranch, she said.
Traveling north on U.S. 301, she attracted a following of horse owners who have used the Internet to find her and her horses places to stay on their journey.
She was physically worn down by the time she arrived in Natchez, Delana wrote. She'd been taking care of her horses better than herself, and didn't want to go to the hospital because she was worried about who would take care of them.
She finally agreed to go, Delana wrote, when her husband, Bert, promised to take good care of the horses, Jay and Tonto.
Bert works with Donnis Birkicht's husband and asked the Birkicht's to check on her at the hospital in Pineville.
The horse that she has been riding, Jay, stopped eating after Byrne was taken to the hospital, Delana wrote yesterday. Jay paced in circles in her stall. "She know's that something is wrong with Donna and she is so upset."
But Birkicht said Jay was calmer today and had started to eat.
Reporter Lindsay Peterson can be reached at (813) 259-7834
Joy Ezell
Perry, FL