I hit an unmarked 2 ft × 3 ft ice block hidden under drifted snow. My brother watched me launch. He said I looked like I was still sitting on the snowmobile—except the machine was gone. My body flew 330 feet through the air. My sled’s distance was measured at twice that distance, at 660 feet. My brother said it was upside down, idling. He said they rolled it over and shut it off.
I landed hard. I suffered three broken ribs, a punctured lung (pneumothorax), and a severe traumatic brain injury that put me into a coma for 20 days.
Medical fact on my chest injuries:
Broken ribs are the most common thoracic injury from blunt trauma. A displaced rib fragment can puncture the lung, allowing air into the pleural space and causing pneumothorax (collapsed lung). This is a known, potentially life-threatening complication. (Mayo Clinic; Cleveland Clinic; Brigham and Women’s Hospital)
I was airlifted from the local hospital to Regions Hospital in downtown St. Paul.
Regions Hospital context:
In 1996, Regions was already Minnesota’s first American College of Surgegeons-verified Level I Trauma Center for both adults and children (verification began in 1993). It was the right place for multi-system trauma, including TBI and chest injury.