The Day CYPRES Saved My Life… with Peggy Selway

I made my first jump in 1977. I thought about it the other day and realised that it is now 47 years. My husband and our children skydive also, plus my brother-in-law and two nephews so there is a gang of us. Our kids have their own families now, so they are not currently jumping, but they got to around four hundred each. I have over two thousand, but had something of a break while raising our two. I didn’t ever stop skydiving, but with commitments to family while working a busy job as an insurance agent I could not go to the dropzone as much as I wanted.

We jump at Maytown Sport Parachute Club, near Lancaster in Pennsylvania. My husband Tom had a much more flexible job and could go more often, but I was working at a big building in the city, in the days when you had to go into the office every day. So everyone would be out jumping while I was still in the office until it was getting dark.

When I retired, I started jumping more. Before having a family we would travel to boogies, but then most of our jumps would be at Maytown. Then we bought a house in Florida and started jumping down there at Skydive Southwest Florida. Tom has two rigs and I was just about to get a second one also, then this happened to me.

The Way Skydivers Are

Around eight years ago, I was walking my dog, and he pulled my shoulder while trying to chase a squirrel when I wasn’t looking. When I had it checked out, they said I had torn my rotator cuff, but it was minor and they probably wouldn’t do anything to it. Five or six years passed without it being a problem, but then it started to bother me a bit, like I couldn’t put my hand up straight all the time. I decided to get it checked out, but after arriving home from an upcoming vacation to Iceland. I did not want to miss out on the trip, and of course, continued skydiving in the meantime as it had never been an issue.

I am quite particular about conditions these days. I’d previously had a total knee replacement, so I had learned to be a little more careful and not jump with too much of a breeze. It was quite windy on this day, but everything felt good, and I wanted to go again. We were out jumping with our group of friends and things were fine.

The jump was really good. The relative work went well, and I can track pretty hard so I was far away from everyone. When I tried to pull, I felt extreme pain and couldn’t move my arm. I tried again but I couldn’t get my pilot chute. I kept struggling until everything on the ground was much bigger than it should be, and I realised my CYPRES was going to fire. I understood that I was too low and not going to be able to deploy, so instead of remaining head low and trying to fix it, I went for a better body position for my reserve deployment. My shoulder had fully dislocated, but I am still trying to use my arm. I was heading fast downwind into a cornfield, which meant I could probably be badly hurt. I managed to turn myself around, and navigate into a soft ploughed field.

Ouch

At first, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to share my story, because in hindsight, instead of fighting to deploy my main again and again, I could have gone straight to my reserve with more altitude. I think experienced skydivers understand this though, and it is perhaps more difficult when you are in pain to think clearly about going directly to your reserve handle than try to get your main out. Also, I did have the presence of mind to know that when my CYPRES was about to activate, I should stop trying to reach for my pilot chute, because I would be risking a two-out.

Getting It Done

I have watched the video a few times, and you can hear me in a lot of pain, but talking and reassuring myself, saying that I have got this and I can do it. I landed far away from the dropzone, but they could see me because it is wide open country. Applying typical skydiver behaviour, I was trying to gather my canopy up with one hand when the farmer arrived, and I was more concerned with getting him to help retrieve my freebag than worrying about my arm. By the time we arrive back at the dropzone, the adrenaline is starting to wear off and everyone can see that I am putting a brave face on things but barely holding it together. Everyone had gathered around to have a look at my shoulder, and then of course, they said we need to get you out of your gear before we go to the emergency room because they are going to cut it off if we don’t.

Experience Wins The Day

I had experienced two malfunctions before, but this was back in the 80s in the days before AADs. These days, there are not many people who don’t have one. Back then, there was a lot of discussion because people were initially worried about it firing while your main was already out, but I remember that we got ours pretty quickly. Since then we have all used CYPRES units, numerous ones – and our kids too.

I am due to have surgery on my shoulder before I can return to skydiving, so I am having an enforced break at the moment. Three days after my save, I went on my trip to Iceland, and y’know, it was still really fun.