Thank you Vail Doctors!

This is a cross post from GD.

Meet my nephew.
This is my sister’s youngest.
His name is Andy.
He’s 17.
Like most 17 year olds, he’s indistructable.
He’s laying in a hospital bed right this very minute in Vail, Colorado.
What’s he doing holding a teddy bear and lying in a hospital bed in Vail, Colorado?



Andy is a snow-boarder. Big Time. Has been for four or five years now.
Since he works at Elk Mountain in the mountains of Northeast Pennsylvania, he does a lot of it.
He’s good. Really good. Not Gold Medal, Flying Tomato good, but close.
That’s his girlfriends teddy bear.
On his second run on vacation this past Friday, his first day skiing in Vail Colorado, he launched off a jump and did a double-twisting blackflip.
He missed and wiped out.

He popped right back up, skiied the rest of the way down the mountain, got back on the lift and went back to the top for another run.

When my sister who was skiing with him saw him she said, “hey dummy you don’t look good”.
My sister and I are a lot alike.
His response was he didn’t feel too good.
That’s to be expected when you just broke your neck.
He skied down the mountain, and rode back up the lift again with a shattered C5 & C7 verterbrae, a busted rib and a collapsed lung.

He’s stable as of Monday morning, and he’s got full range of movement.
The surgeons told my sister they had never seen anyone not paralyzed from such an injury.
Since the hospital was in Vail, one can assume that they see their fair share of injuries like this.
They said it was one in ten million that he walked or rather skiied away.
He’s got a piece of his hip bone in his neck, and a piece of coral inserted to replace what they took out.

He’s going to have to wear one of those head cages for 4 months, and it’s going to be 6-8 months of rehab before he’s back to normal.
As if anyone in MY family is “normal”.
My sister says his new nickname is “Flipper”.

I’m still laughing about what he told the nurse (while under morphine) when she told him where she was going to have to insert a catherer.

Amazingly they are going to discharge him tomorrow and he flies home.
I guess there is someone watching over those who are kind and innocent and young.
I don't know if it's God or Jesus or some other kind soul.
But, MY BOY is walking around the hospital this morning and at the age of 17 probably still doesn't understand...

He's one in ten million...

Sounds like your sister had a quick eye and a quicker instinct.

I think most of the major ski areas have a great concentration of good docs, and I'm glad your nephew found one in Vail.

Good wishes for him.

Whether it's something like this or a blown knee or a compound fracture, I don't think there's any kind of minor skiing/snowboarding injury. Considering what you described it really is amazing that he walked away. I've seen people being hauled down the mountain many, many times for things that have almost certainly been lesser injuries than this. Do you ski as well?