Pocatello girl, 8, to undergo key surgery Wednesday following snowmobile crash

POCATELLO — The outcome of a surgery Wednesday, Jan. 3, will go a long way in determining how long it will take an 8-year-old Pocatello girl to recover from injuries sustained in a Dec. 26 snowmobile crash.

When it occurred, Harlow Preston was sitting with her aunt, Malorie Wilwand, in a sled, which Wilwand described as similar to a dog sled, being pulled behind a snowmobile. Wilwand and her 1-year-old daughter, whom she was holding at the time of the crash, escaped injuries, as did Harlow’s mother, Erin Preston, who was driving the snowmobile.

Harlow in front of the University of Utah Hospital, where she will likely be for more than a month. | Courtesy Malorie Wilwand

The crash occurred as the family was snowmobiling from their trucks to the cabin. As Wilwand describes on a GoFundMe page, the snowmobile she and Harlow were on crested a hill above the cabin and began its descent. But icy conditions cause the sled to slide.

“I could see Erin just pumping the brakes, trying to get the snowmobile to slow down, but we were just going so fast,” Wilwand told EastIdahoNews.com. “The ski, kinda, turned just a little bit. When that happened, because we were going so fast, it just jackknifed and flipped over.”

Wilwand recalls seeing her sister thrown from the driver’s seat as the snowmobile — its tracks still spinning — dug into the snow. Erin recovered and crawled back to the snowmobile, digging into the snow to reach the engine’s kill switch.

All attention then turned to Harlow, whose leg had been torn into by the snowmobile’s tracks.

She suffered a serious injury to her left leg – which Wilwand described as being “chewed up.” The only thing that kept the injury from being life-threatening was the third-degree burns, which cauterized a 4-inch-wide and 6-inch-long opened wound to Harlow’s lower leg.

The family immediately realized Harlow needed to be taken to an emergency room. But low visibility made it impossible to land a helicopter, so Erin and Wilwand loaded Harlow back into the sled she had just been in to pull her back down to the truck.

Harlow was “very scared” about getting back into the sled, Wilwand said, “but that was the only way we could (get her out).”

An ambulance met the family at the bottom of the mountain and took Harlow to Portneuf Medical Center in Pocatello. From there, she was taken to Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City.

She was evaluated at Primary Children’s, then sent to the University of Utah Hospital’s burn unit.

Harlow has since undergone one surgery, to remove the dead tissue from in and around the wound. Wilwand said that some of the tissue removed was ligaments and muscles, which must now be replaced.

On Wednesday, Harlow will undergo a second surgery, during which surgeons will graft muscle and skin from her upper leg onto her lower leg.

Despite the injuries, though, Wilwand said Harlow’s doctors expect her to be up and fully functioning in as little as two months.

“Harlow loves gymnastics, so that’s one of the things we’re using to help her keep the range of motion in her ankle,” Wilwand said.

Courtesy Malorie Wilwand

After the ambulance had taken her niece to the hospital, Wilwand learned that she only narrowly escaped serious injury herself. Doing a quick inventory of the family’s belongings, Wilwand discovered the leg of her snow pants were torn up and burned, leaving her to assume her leg was mere inches from the turning tracks as well. And the left sleeve of the jacket she had been using as a blanket over her and her baby had also been shredded

The incident, Wilwand said, caused trauma the family will have to face. And the idea of returning to the cabin Harlow’s family has enjoyed for generations — and ever getting on another snow mobile — is and idea the family “will continue to navigate.”

The family has launched a GoFundMe to help pay medical expenses. In one week, as of 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, the page has raised $8,955 toward its goal of $20,000.