A Wyoming-based long-distance jockey became too ill on a 620-mile journey across the East Asian country to compete, but was left to fend for herself in Mongolia after race organizers “never cared” about what happened to her.
Dede Anders, 49, entered the Mongol Derby at the last minute, arriving in Mongolia on Aug. 1 after being contacted by race organizers after another contestant withdrew last month, she said. Cowboy State Daily.
Anders had travelled eight hours from the Mongolian capital, Ulaanbaatar, to the start of the race and was ready to begin the long journey across the Mongolian steppe.
Mongolian Darby Website.
But on Monday, two days before the race started, she felt seriously ill.
“I had a lot of gastrointestinal symptoms,” Anders told the outlet. “Vomiting and stuff like that.”
race — Riders navigate challenging terrain, on averageI spend about 13 hours a day in the saddle. Given her condition, that was no longer possible.
To make matters worse, when Anders attempted to seek medical assistance at base camp, she was shocked by the lack of empathy and consideration shown by the race’s medical staff towards one of the registered athletes.
“Two doctors saw me. They said I didn’t need anything but they didn’t do anything. They told me to ride it out,” the woman, who has been involved in horse racing all her life, told the outlet.
Anders, a former U.S. Army medic who earned her doctorate in medicine and emergency medicine from Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee, said she was surprised that Race, which claimed to have a “highly experienced international medic team,” did so little to help her.
“No member of the medical staff touched me or asked me any questions,” she told the outlet.
“The other doctor took my pulse for a few seconds. He didn’t take my vital signs, he didn’t ask if I was diabetic or what medications I was taking. He just told me I would be better within 24 hours.”
Anders then met with the Mongol Derby’s race director, Catherine, and informed her that he would be unable to compete in the race due to his deteriorating health.
“Katherine came to my yurt at least twice to talk to me,” Anders said, “and I told her I was sick both days.”
She claims the race did not provide her with any medical care during this time, instead taking her to the Mongolian capital, where her driver abandoned her at a hotel.
“They put me in the car for eight hours until I got sick with gastroenteritis and the driver barely spoke any English,” Anders told the outlet.
“I booked a hotel from base camp using Expedia, had the driver stop me in the city, collected my passport and was finally able to check into the hotel.”
She claims she was “thrown out” in the capital and that Derby organisers were the only ones to help her during her illness.
“I was too sick to travel 620 miles on horseback,” Anders said, “but I was also too sick to be dumped in a city for an eight-hour car ride with no passport or flight home.”
Now alone and still battling his illness abroad, Anders’ ordeal continued as he struggled to find a flight back to the United States.
“I had no cell phone reception so I called home and got my boyfriend to book a flight,” she said. “Seattle is the closest place to me. I just want to get back to the States.”
The experienced rider won’t be able to find a flight back to the US until August 11th, and once he gets to Seattle he’ll have to make alternative travel arrangements to get back to Wyoming.
While waiting to get home, Anders said he emailed race organizers about his feelings about how he had been treated, but “never heard back.”
“I paid about $30,000 to participate in this event,” Ryder said, “and it cost me almost $17,000 just to enter, and I was sick and they didn’t even take my blood pressure.”
Before the drama, Anders Cody Enterprises She said she was “paying about $900 a month” to cover the costs of racing what she once considered a “lifelong dream.”
She described the Mongol Derby as “a bit of a mess” and “not very organised”, but that’s the least of her concerns now, given how disinterested the race’s medical staff were when she was ill.
“I work in the emergency room and I have a doctorate in emergency medicine,” she told the outlet.
“There’s no way I’m swinging a cat around and hitting a medical worker over there. I don’t know what the delay was, but for some reason it definitely blew me away.”
