Friends, family and colleagues are mourning a Frankfort veterinarian who died at University of Kentucky's Chandler Hospital after breaking her leg in an accident at the Kentucky Horse Park.
Dr. Caroline Bevins-Taylor, 46, broke her leg Friday when her golf cart, which was being loaded onto a trailer, crushed her leg, pinning her against her car, police reports said.
Medics treated Bevins-Taylor at the scene before she was taken to the UK hospital where she underwent surgery and died under anesthesia from a blood clot in her lung, friends said.
According to police reports, Kentucky Horse Park Police Department Capt. Roy N. Foster responded to a call at Barn 10 at about 5 p.m.
Robert A. Summers was backing Bevins-Taylor's EZ-GO golf cart onto a trailer attached to her car and the accelerator stuck, police reports said.
Reports said the cart pinned her right leg against the rear of her car. Bevins-Taylor was taken to UK at 5:20 p.m., police reports said.
Dr. Gina Yeargan, who practiced veterinary medicine with Bevins-Taylor at Bevins Animal Hospital, said she was "blond sunshine coming in rain."
"I want to honor her and I want to do her proud," Yeargan said in an emotional interview with The State Journal.
Yeargan displayed photos of Bevins-Taylor taken recently by a photographer to announce her engagement to Louisville internal medicine specialist Dr. James Bosler.
"I know Jim's feeling pretty lost," Yeargan said.
Yeargan said she and Bevins-Taylor, who lived in Indian Hills, had known one another since they began vet school at Auburn University in 1983, graduating together in 1987.
"She was such a vivacious person," Yeargan said. "It's hard to believe that she's the one gone."
Bevins-Taylor lived an active life, jogging with her Border Collie, Sarah, and riding her Thoroughbred, Summer Tan, Yeargan said.
According to Kentucky Horse Park officials, Bevins-Taylor was competing in a show-ring hunter competition at the park Saturday when she was injured.
"She won lots of competitions," Yeargan said of the friend and colleague she referred to as a "firebrand," as she fought back tears.
Yeargan described Bevins-Taylor as a confident leader who was tough and had a big heart, traveling to New Orleans in the wake of hurricane Katrina to aid in relief for animals.
"She was a force of nature," Yeargan said.
Bevins-Taylor brought together her love for animals and for people in her veterinary practice, Yeargan said.
"You have to love animals but love people too, and work to strengthen that bond," Yeargan said. "She was hard to keep up with."
Yeargan said Bevins-Taylor was a natural leader, joking when asked which name or title she wished to be referred, saying she wanted to be called "O Captain, my captain."
"She was the captain," Yeargan said.
Pharmaceutical representatives calling on the clinic said they pictured Bevins-Taylor as the quintessential blond in a red sports car, hair waving in the breeze, Yeargan said.
"I'm going to miss her, that's all I know," she said.
Yeargan said she and Bevins-Taylor's brother, Steve Crawford, will continue to run the veterinary practice.
"But I don't plan to fill her shoes," Yeargan said. "I can't."