On a Monday, after about 10 years of using his high school snow helmet, Emil ordered a new Giro Strief Carbon Fiber Ski Racing Helmet from XSportsProtective.com. Thursday, he got it.
On Saturday, it saved his life.
Saturday, January 23, 2010. Emil joined his uncle, cousin and his cousin’s daughter for a day of skiing at Stratton Ski Resort in Vermont. At 26, Emil has been skiing for 20 years in the east, and grew up racing. He likes going (really) fast.
Back to that ‘almost’ fatal day.
It was the last run of the day, of course, a black diamond, and Emil was going for it! Life was good! He noticed a skier on the left about 50 feet away, who looked inexperienced, but making it down okay. All of a sudden, this skier cut straight across in front of him. To avoid crashing, Emil took a hard, fast right, going about 50 mph, and flew off the trail into the trees. Yes, flew!
It all happened in seconds.
He tried to dig in with his ski edges, but his skis flew off. Spinning and flying around, he felt like a rag doll, and just didn’t know what was happening. Then, he stopped.
“A tree caught my face,” he recalls.
He tried wiggling his toes, and could. He took his goggles off and tried to wiggle his nose, but couldn’t. He couldn’t feel his nose or anything else on his face. He just saw blood everywhere. His teeth felt loose to the touch, and he could feel his face swell and swell…He heard someone yelling at him. He replied, “I’m okay. I think I hit a tree.”
That someone was ski patrol, thank God. Since he’d been doing runs all day with ski patrol, they were minutes behind him.
They were amazed to see him alive, let alone talking.
Usually, when a skier hits a tree, the skier is dead on impact or unconscious at the least. About five ski patrol guys stabilized Emil, laid him on a board, then after about twenty minutes of just moving him out of the woods, they took him down the mountain.
This serious injury needed a real hospital.
The Stratton infirmary knew this was a critical trauma with internal injuries, so they sent Emil by ambulance to nearest hospital, about an hour away. Emil shared the ambulance with a young injured boy, who apparently looked pretty freaked out at Emil’s disfigured face (at this point Emil’s eyes were almost swollen shut and blood was still everywhere).
“It felt basically like a totally broken face.”
At the hospital, the emergency doctors took CAT scans of Emil’s whole body. His body looked okay, but his forehead was broken, his nose shattered, and his orbital bone was broken, too. A dangerous air pocket in his forehead was forcing pressure on his brain, as well.
Not good.
He needed to get to Albany Trauma Center. Fast. But, they couldn’t take him by helicopter because of the air pocket. So, still on the cold, hard board and in a stiff, tight neck brace, an ambulance took him one and a half hours to Albany. They gave him fluids through an IV and some anti-nausea drugs.
However, the nausea kicked in anyway. The EMS crew turned the board sideways for Emil to vomit. In vomiting, Emil heard his ears, nose and eyes ‘pop!’ It was a huge ‘whoa’ of pressure relief…and maybe that air pocket releasing?
At Albany, Emil underwent more CAT scans. The air pocket had disappeared! Emil’s family arrived from NYC to be with him. Emil couldn’t actually see them, but could hear his mom and sisters crying and sense their fear. He tried to cheer them up and make them not worry. But, they did worry, and he remained in the ICU overnight and under the care of some wonderful and friendly nurses.
A look in the mirror
The next day the swelling reduced and the medications were alleviating his pain. His face felt numb, but his right eye started to open. He asked for a mirror. From his family’s reactions, he actually thought he would look worse. But most of the trauma was internal and structural. After two days, he was walking around, and after four days, he was released and headed home with his family.
The surgeon.
Back in NYC, his mom found a cranial facial expert, who specialized in bone structure. They met and scheduled the surgery for as soon as possible.
The dentist.
Emil visited the dentist, too, who scanned his teeth, which looked fine, but were shifted. He just couldn’t bite anything for three to four months while they shifted back. He lost 25 pounds!
The surgery.
Two weeks after his accident, a medical team of eight met with Emil and prepared him for his three hour surgery. After six hours of surgery (not three), the surgeon finally came out to talk to Emil’s family. Everything had gone fine. Emil was okay, and remained in the hospital for two very uncomfortable recovery days.
In summary:
- 15 stitches in his left eye
- 30 stitches in his mouth
- Reopening of and stitches in his nose
- 70 zigzag staples at his forehead
At the two week post-op checkup, the surgeon said he had never seen anyone recover so quickly! He said it usually would take someone a year to recover from that type of facial trauma. And though it took four to five months before Emil could feel his face again besides just numbness, he returned to working out within six months.
Family TLC
His whole family helped take care of him, especially his sister who took a medical leave from work. Emil felt as though his body had its butt kicked at the molecular level with bruising on his whole body from slamming into the tree. He looked pretty bad, too, with deep black eyes and bloodshot eyes that took months to finally turn white again.
Besides not being able to chew any food, he had to sleep in a chair for one month to protect the fragility of his rebuilt nose. Fortunately, it was Lazyboy! (And luckily, the surgeon said Emil had a ‘thick skull’ which he used part of to reconstruct Emil’s nose).
His vision was impaired to the point that he couldn’t read easily either. So, to endure the long reco
very and remain positive, Emil watched a lot of movies. His vision has since improved, but it is not yet 20/20.
Since his olfactory nerve was severed, Emil now just has this smoky smell all the time. Emil loves food and wine, so he hopes somehow his sense of smell will improve.
But he can see and he can hear. And, most importantly, he is alive.
This accident was obviously a life-changing experience for Emil. It was a reality check for a young man who had always been optimistic about life anyway. Now, he is even more, and just so happy to be alive! He knows he is so lucky to have bought that snow helmet just days before.
He knows he wouldn’t be here without it.
He is grateful for his snow helmet, his family and his surgeon. He isn’t mad at the skier who cut him off. He remembers what it felt like when he learned to ski. But now he always tells people to wear their helmet – whether it’s skiing or mountain biking.
And how’s the helmet?
His Giro snow helmet? There’s only one spot where the paint chipped off. That’s it. It’s coming up on a year now, and he’s almost 100% recovered and ready to ski again….that is, once he gets a new Giro Snow Helmet from XSportsProtective.com!
