The Eco-Challenge is a challenging and demanding expedition race. It can also be dangerous and risky. The inherent risks of a 24-hour, multi-day race were driven home today on the twisty mountain tracks of eastern Sabah.

David Laux, the captain of Ernst and Young, was negotiating a sharp turn when he lost control of his mountain bike and fell onto a protruding branch, puncturing his chest and causing one of his lungs to collapse.

The team was only two kilometers from PC 12 when the mishap occurred. His teammates ignited smoke signals and administered first aid while waiting for help, which came quickly in the form of a 20-person assistance team. The Eco-Challenge Medical Team, headed by Dr. Adrian Cohen, stabilized David Laux on site with intravenous fluid and a chest tube before transferring him by helicopter to the Eco-Challenge Field Hospital for additional treatment. He was then airlifted by air ambulance from the east coast to Kota Kinabalu, on the west coast.

David Laux is now resting comfortably in hospital in Kota Kinabalu, and has already called his wife, Angie, in Houston. She later called Eco-Challenge’s Tricia Middleton to thank her for the rapid response and great emergency care. She also wanted to know if the rest of Ernst and Young would go on.

David Laux’s teammates Brad Pennington, Nancy Bristow and Tracy Fee were taken back to PC 12, shortly after the accident, where they faced the difficult, if not impossible, decision of whether or not to continue on the course, without their captain.

It was only when they learned David was stable and had spoken to his wife that the team came to the decision to continue on.

"David would have wanted us to continue on course," said teammate Brad Pennington. "So that’s what we’re going to do."

The team is currently on the mountain bike leg.

If a tree falls in the jungle, does it make a sound?

Jeff Serota learned first hand that it does. And a good thing, too.

The captain of adventurefitness.com was trekking in the jungle during a fierce thunderstorm. The rain was beating down, and the path was a mudbath.

"I’m not sure, I must have seen it out of the corner of my eye or something," he says as he sits in the catering tent at Camp One, his left wrist bandaged and swollen, but otherwise unhurt. "I just raised my right arm to protect my head."

The tree was 200 feet high or more. The branch that struck Jeff was probably about 2 feet in diameter. His left wrist bore the brunt of the blow, which also glanced off his head, neck and shoulders. The force of the blow knocked him down a hill. As Jeff rolled, another tree fell, inches from where he had been standing.

"I remember reaching the bottom of the hill and thinking, ‘Okay, I’m still alive. That’s good. ’ I was amazed when I got up and saw there was no blood anywhere."

His teammates, meanwhile, saw the second tree go down and thought he was trapped under it.

"They were calling out, ‘Jeff, Jeff, can you hear us? Where are you?’ And I was, like, ‘I’m over here, guys.’"

Jeff Serota was feverish and sore, and his wrist and fingers were swollen to three times their size. Still, he did not realize the extent of his injuries. He trekked through the jungle for another two and half days, before adventurefitness.com emerged from the thick trees at PC 18, the Borneo Rainforest Lodge.

"We got there and the doctors wanted to know if anyone needed medical assistance. It was only when they looked at it that it occurred to me it was a serious injury," he said.

Doctors were worried Jeff’s hand might be infected. Although he was eager to continue, the doctors warned him the infection could get worse. With great reluctance, he stayed at PC 18 while the rest of his team continued on, unranked. Jeff was given antibiotics and his hand was cleaned up. Lucky for him, the infection never materialized and x-rays later ruled out any major broken bones.