Wrangler Dunda fighting back from horrific accident
Mar. 13—By Laura Dennis
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Many Odessans have cheered on and supported bull riding champ Wrangler Dunda since he was a toddler competing in mutton busting all the way through his pro rodeo bull riding career.
Wrangler, 34, has endured six surgeries during the last two weeks and lost both his legs below the knees after being shocked by 400+ volts of electricity while working on a metal building.
His mother, Dee Dee Dunda, said via phone from Oklahoma Thursday morning how proud she and husband Gary are of their son for his fighting spirit and how well he is handling this tragic accident.
"We would love for anyone to pray for this situation," she said en route to the hospital. "We are extremely proud of him ... giving God all the praise for him still being alive. It is rough on everyone just seeing him hurt and it is rough on his wife Emily who has been there around the clock."
Dee Dee said she is helping with her grandchildren and then spending days at the hospital with her son. Husband Gary has returned to Odessa for work and will go back and forth as more surgeries are coming.
Wrangler Dunda was holding metal trim between his thighs fastening a last piece when a nearby power line came loose and hit the metal electrocuting him. The current went into his thighs and then blew out of his feet.
His mother said doctors originally hoped to save one leg, but later determined there was too much damage and ended up amputating both just below the knees. His hands are burned, but it is his thighs that will likely need another surgery for more skin grafts. Dee Dee said her son had thigh skin cadaver grafts but will likely need another graft.
She said it has been an emotional roller coaster but Wrangler is handling the injuries well and he is thankful he is alive. "He is up and alert," she said.
He remains hospitalized at Integris Health Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City. He has been in the intensive care unit but will move to a burn unit and then to a rehab wing when he has stabilized.
Wrangler has a son, Fawkes, 6, and two step-children Kavry, 15, and Wesson, 11.
Dee Dee said Wrangler stopped bull riding just last year and owns his own spray foaming business and also builds metal buildings. The family lives in Maud, Okla.
Gary and Dee Dee Dunda still live in Odessa. A GoFundMe has been set up to assist Wrangler's family and there are a number of fundraisers being planned both in Oklahoma and in Odessa.
A team roping and silent auction event is scheduled April 12 at the West Texas Horse Center
Wrangler competed in the World Championship Bull Riding in Cheyenne, Wyo., in 2012. At the time he told an OA reporter about a freak accident when he was 8 that left him in a full body cast after he broke his femur being bucked off a steer. He said it took him more than a year to recover, both physically and mentally, enough to get back into riding shape.
Wrangler attended Gonzales Elementary and Nimitz Junior High in Odessa and then was home schooled as a high schooler who was on the rodeo circuit.
Wrangler earned multiple honors in his junior and high school rodeo career and earned his CBR card at age 18. In 2008, Wrangler was named to the High School All Star Rodeo Team by the National High School Rodeo Association.
Featured in a 1996 Odessa American article, then 5-year-old Wrangler said he wanted to follow in dad Gary Dunda's footsteps and be a bull rider. At that time he was riding in rodeos at Dos Amigos and taking on calves and sheep and winning belt buckles and other prizes.
In 2009, Wrangler was the only bull rider to ride three bulls in the 2009 Youth Bull Riding World Finals scoring 76, 80 and 75. He was crowned Youth Bull Riding's World Champ for the second time that year.
Three years later he had earned more than $100,000 on the pro circuit. In 2011, he finished third in the CBR World standings and was in the Top 5 by 2012.
>>Wrangler's cash app is $Wranglerdunda
>>Donate at https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-wrangler-heal-after-tragedy
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