Allie Brieghner went surfing with her group of friends in Pacific Beach about three weeks ago. Ten minutes into the surf session, she was paddling on a wave and then fell over.
"I remember coming up from the water, and then within five seconds, I felt the excruciating pain," Brieghner, 22, said.
The fin on her surfboard had sliced her thigh and severed her femoral artery. Within 20 seconds, she passed out.
As soon as her friend Alec Maddox saw the wound, he knew it was serious.
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"The blood was squirting, which means it's arterial, so I had to get her out of the water as fast as I could," Maddox said.
Brieghner lost three liters of blood. Maddox quickly carried her into the sand, where he applied a tourniquet to stop the bleeding.
"Somebody nearby found me the surf leash, and they detached it from the surfboard, so I just wrapped it around her leg a couple of times and made a little loop because you need to put a stick through this so you can crank it, so I had somebody go grab me a stick as well," Maddox said.
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He learned that technique as a Marine. He held the tourniquet in place until lifeguards and paramedics arrived.
"It was just really scary, and I wasn't prepared, so I'm just really thankful that Alec was prepared and had that training," Breighner said.
She went to the Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla and was taken in for immediate surgery.
Doctors removed the vein from her left leg to repair the femoral artery. They closed the wound with 46 staples.
It was an experience Breighner said she does not wish on anyone.
"If there's anything that anyone can take from this, it is to be more aware of the board you have and the fins because it was a freak accident. If they were more like a rubber fin, I don't think it would have severed my femoral artery or cut through as much," she said.
