AQHA judge and multiple World Champion hunt seat rider, Gigi Bailey, of De Pere, Wisconsin gave everyone quite a scare at the AQHA World Show in November. During the finals of the Senior Hunter Under Saddle, Bailey started having trouble breathing and as soon as she finished backing her horse in the line-up, she was carried out of the arena by two grown men to wait for the paramedics to arrive.
Gigi said that everyone told her afterwards that her fingers were indigo blue by the time the ambulance arrived. It was unknown at the time, but Bailey found out later that she was experiencing congestive heart failure and her lungs were backing up and filing with fluid. The doctors are unsure of the exact cause of the condition, but she now appears to be on the road to a full recovery.
During the finals, Bailey was showing a talented bay horse, On In Five (Bud), owned by Elizabeth Gorski from Ohio. “He is a really great horse with a fresh face and the owner who is an amateur, did all the work on him,” she says. “We had a nice ride in the preliminaries and the first way of the finals was going well, but when I started going the second way, it started getting harder and harder to breathe. When I stopped on the rail to walk into the middle of the arena, I’m sure the people in the stands were a little worried because they could hear my breath gurgle up and down—at the time my lungs were filling with water, but, I didn’t know it then. By that point, I really started having trouble breathing.”
In the middle of the arena, Bailey lined up first to back and another trainer next to her, Missy Thyfault, suddenly jumped off her horse to try and help Bailey because she could tell something was wrong. At the time, Gigi was white as a sheet, having trouble breathing and was clawing her choker off–but she was able to finish the class and back her horse. After she finished backing, one of the judges, Steve Lackey, asked her if she was okay and she responded, “No”, so two gentleman came out and helped her off her horse. She also couldn’t walk, so they carried her to a chair to wait for the ambulance to arrive. Her friend, Amy Hames, Dr. Chuck McDaniels, DVM, and Gary Griffith from AQHA were all trying to help and keep her calm.
What was also nerve racking was that her husband, Bob, and her family was watching the finals on the live feed, and it went black when Gigi fell ill. Then, it came back on when the owner, Gorski, was leading the horse up to get their finalist ribbon. For a short time, her husband and family were panicked as to what happened to Gigi during that short blackout.
When the paramedics arrived, Bailey had no blood pressure and her oxygen level was very low. The paramedics took her to St. Anthony’s Hospital where they first thought she had pneumonia but later changed the diagnosis to acute pulmonary failure. Her heart enzymes were off and her heart was only working at 12 percent capacity.
“What is surprising is that the condition I had is fairly common,” Gigi told GoHorseShow. “When they figured out I had congestive heart failure, they changed my medication, and I went home five days later. I still have to let my heart muscle heal, but they expect me to have a full recovery.”
As far as what caused the problems, the doctors could not pinpoint one cause but rather thought it was several factors that came to a head all at once. “I used a different english saddle pad in the preliminaries that caused my back to get out of whack, and I was in a great deal of pain. Also, I had my back adjusted the day before the finals and the chiropractor told me to drink six bottles of water—which then probably caused the water to end up backing up in my lungs.”
Gigi continues, “I also got a bronchial thing when I went to the Congress and then I had to fly on a plane to leave to judge the APHA World Show and then turn around and show in the prelims of the hunter under saddle in Oklahoma City. The doctors think I may have picked up something viral on the plane as well already being run down from the Congress; combined with me injuring my back.”
Bailey is currently taking a heart medication to help heal her heart as well as implementing a protocol of doubling up on her vitamins two days before she flies on a plane.
“I am extremely thankful for everyone that has sent their well wishes,” Gigi says. “I would really like to thank Dr. Chuck McDaniels, Amy Hames, Gary Griffith, Elizabeth and John Gorski, Tom Persechino of AQHA, Missy Thyfault, St Anthony’s Hospital, my husband, family and everyone else that helped me through this health scare. I am extremely grateful for everyone’s concern.”
GoHorseShow hopes to see Gigi back in the show pen as an exhibitor and judge real soon.
