An Ohio woman is recovering after being trampled by a deer during a 5K race earlier this month, according to a report.
Rebecca Heasley has been competing in races for years and was nearly done with the “Space Race” in Montville Township when she was struck by a deer that charged her.
Heasley’s sister, Melissa Clow, said on a GoFundMe page, “This race was going well almost until the end when she was exiting the woods on the trail. It was there she was struck by a deer that was running into the woods. She was knocked to the ground and trampled. Deer hooves are like knives and gashed open Rebecca’s head, ear, and neck.”
“She is a good person, acting in good faith, and she didn’t deserve this,” she continued.
Heasley said, “I thought I got hit by another runner who just was too close.”
As stated earlier, the deer hooves cut open her head, ear and neck. She also suffered lacerations as a result of being knocked to the ground.
“Honestly stayed calm through the whole thing,” Heasley said. “I had a moment of freak out when I found my ear wasn’t where it was supposed to be, but other than that it was more or less like if I’m going to freak out, this is going to be much worse than it really is.”
Heasley was so far along the trail that she decided to get up and walk to the finish line. There she was assisted by emergency personnel.
Heasley has now returned to work following a surgery to reattach her ear and stitches to close the wound.
Heasley said she won’t let what happened to her stop her from participating in future races.
Heasley said, “I’m not going to let it scare me from getting back out there because it can happen anywhere at this point. It’s nature, it happens. You can’t be afraid of it.”
