My Near Death Experience
We were flying down the hill with the breathtaking view overwhelming our minds, the wind stinging our cheeks, and the sun blinding our eyes. We skidded to a stop in the middle of the run, and gave each other high fives. My brother Joel, my friend Theo and I started whooping and hollering at the gorgeous weather and immaculate snow that blessed us on our first day at Panorama Ski Resort. It seemed like the perfect day, spent doing the perfect activity. Little did I know that this would be the last time I could participate in any sports for the next 5 months.
The previous day, our family had made the 10 hour drive from Port Coquitlam to Panorama Mountain. We were staying in a beautiful mountainside chalet owned by our family friends. Free accommodations and great weather made for an exemplary family vacation over spring break. All the local mountains were closing for the spring, and this trip would be the last time skiing is available until the next season. I love skiing more than anything else, and I would go every single day of the year if I could. The adrenaline rush I get the moment I strap on my skis is unlike anything else. Because of this, and the fact that we had driven so long to get there, I started off the trip skiing a little bit reckless, and I ended up paying for it.
We woke up extra early the morning of March 27th, 2016. It was our first day of the trip and with bags under our eyes we groggily got on our gear after unpacking it. We headed out to the slopes as the first chair was on it’s way up the mountain. It had been a foggy and cold night, and the snow was extra icy. We ripped around the terrain, exploring new areas and pushing our limits. My brother Joel and my friend Theo were being cautious, as the terrain was new and dangerous. I, on the other hand, was giving it my all. I hit 360’s off natural jumps, and slid rails in the terrain park. After a successful couple hours, we decided to explore a new area of the mountain. There was a flat run that winded around the backside of the mountain in an S shape. Connecting the top half of the S was a double black diamond cliff run. As we passed the double black run, I skidded to a stop and looked down. I knew this exact run would thoroughly test my skill, and I knew I had to do it. Against my better judgement, I told my buddies I’d meet them at the bottom where it connects to the flat S run, and dropped in. The icy snow crunched under my skis as I flew down the insanely steep run. I swerved to avoid mini shrubs and moguls but I kept in control. As I came to the bottom of the run, I could see the flat S shaped run cutting across the bottom of my cliff run. I was about to finish the run when I caught glimpse of a small stump right in my path.I was going top speed, and to my horror, when I turned to miss the stump, I caught an edge. As if in slow motion, I flew 6 feet through the air, off the bottom of the cliff run, and slammed down onto the flat S run that intersected. When I hit the snow, I felt the worst pain in my life radiating through my entire left arm. I lay there, on my back in the snow, my entire left arm mangled and sticking in the wrong direction, and I was unable to breathe or move.
Complete shock overcame my body and my vision blurred. I could faintly hear voices in the distance. In that moment, I didn’t recognize my brothers voice screaming a couple feet away from me, as my friend Theo was frantically calling the mountain emergency line. My senses slowly came back into focus. It was as if I had been trapped in a room and the door was slowly opened to the outside world. Joel and Theo were standing over me, as well as three strangers I didn’t recognize. Theo noticed the recognition in my eyes, and said, “Don’t move the ski patrol is on their way”. At that moment, the excruciating pain in my left arm came back to me, and I clenched my teeth. I began to hear the noise of a motor in the distance, and it gradually came closer until I could hear many voices along with it. I heard people jumping into the snow and running towards me. After a couple seconds, three ski patrols were telling everyone to back off as they surrounded me. One of them knelt and started talking to me, while the others examined my body. Immediately they came to the conclusion that my left shoulder must be severely dislocated, and they called 911 to send an ambulance to the mountain. The ski patrols got a body board off the sled that they had pulled up behind a snowmobile. I grimaced in pain as they lifted me onto the body board and placed me in the sled. Every single slight movement sent shockwaves of pain from my left arm throughout my whole body. They strapped me into the sled and started up the snow mobile, and we began the bumpy and painful decent down the mountain.
My memories are blurred from the time I began the decent until I got to the hospital. My shoulder was completely dislocated and out of the socket. When I got to the hospital I would also find out that the bone in my left thumb was broken clean in half and displaced. Because of the extent of my injuries, I was in shock throughout the trip to the hospital. Every bump we hit on the way down the mountain in the snowmobile, and every pothole we drove over in the ambulance, was so excruciatingly painful that I was in a state of semi-consciousness.
When I arrived at the hospital, the paramedics rolled me in through the glass front doors and I caught a glimpse of my reflection. There were two huge bloody gashes on my face: one on my forehead and one on my nose. One of the paramedics was holding my arm above my head, which he had been doing for the entire ride down the mountain. I couldn’t lower it because the dislocation was extremely severe, and my shoulder was completely popped out of the socket. This meant that any time it moved, the muscles tore even further, and the bone would grind against the socket, causing horrible excruciating pain. They rolled me into an emergency room, and doctors surrounded me. The doctors gave me an IV and within 5 minutes I was unconscious. My mom was in the room with me, and her story of the events that unfolded once I was unconscious is truly cringe-worthy. The second I was out cold, an assistant held onto my right arm, and the head doctor grabbed hold of my left arm. The assistant held me back while the doctor proceeded to yank and pull my arm with all his might. It was as if I was a speed boat, my arm was a tow-rope, and the doctor was attempting to water ski using my arm.
After a solid fifteen to twenty minutes of this strange and exhausting display, my shoulder finally popped back into the socket. When I woke up, there was minimal pain in my left shoulder, and it felt extremely relieving to be rid of it. Now that my shoulder didn’t hurt, I could feel my left thumb throbbing in pain. The doctor came in the room and pushed my bed to an X-Ray room, where they X-Rayed my thumb and shoulder. After seeing the X-Ray they said that the bone is cleanly broken with a Bennet Fracture, requiring surgery to insert pins. What the doctor said next left me awe struck. The doctor said that in the past two weeks, two other skiers had been rushed to the hospital. My injury was easily fixable, but these two skiers weren’t so lucky. They had both sustained neck injuries. One of them was paralyzed from the waist down, and the other died in the hospital. At this point I broke down crying, overwhelmed by all the events.
I spent the remainder of the trip in the chalet, with my arm in a full cast and sling. My thumb didn’t require immediate surgery, so we stayed at the mountain for a couple more days. I had my surgery a week after we got home. Two pins were inserted into my thumb, and were kept in for 4 weeks. After 4 weeks of my thumb healing, I was able to start physiotherapy for my shoulder. It took 4 months of physiotherapy for my shoulder to completely heal. During these five months of healing, I was unable to participate in any sports. Throughout this whole experience, I felt lucky that although my injury was severe, it was easily fixable. If I had fell at a slightly different angle, I may have broken my neck and been paralyzed for life. From this near death experience, I was able to learn that sports are exceedingly dangerous. You need to respect your abilities and refrain from being reckless.
By Trevor Thirsk
Picture of me at Panorama.
Picture of me at the Hospital.