On December 21st, 2003 Kip was taking his first warmup run of the day for the Barlow Ski Team practice at Ski Bowl. He lost a ski and was thrown into the trees, hitting many of them with his shoulder and body. He was then transported by ambulance to Emanuel Hospital in Portland. His injuries included severe damage of his cervical spine at C5 –C7, completely shattering C6. There was a bone fragment that took a chunk out of his spinal cord, so he was leaking spinal fluid. He also had compression fractures in his back at level T4-T6, broke 5 ribs and punctured his right lung. After admitting him to the West Wing Trauma Intensive Care Unit they needed to apply traction since his spine was basically dislocated, by the time they were able to align it he had 90 pounds of traction hanging from his head. At this point we were just so thankful that he was still alive.

He went to surgery on December 23rd where he had his spine fused with a metal plate in the back, and bone from his hip fusing the front of the spinal cord. The surgery lasted approximately 7 hours, once again we were just so thankful he was still alive. He was intubated and on the ventilator. He also had drains from the incission site, both front and back, and a drain for the leaking spinal fluid. Along with all the machines that were hooked up to monitor his very fragile body at this time. Medications were constantly being monitored and administered to keep him stable while going through this spinal shock. Part of the process is also to try and keep him from remembering any of this time in the ICU, since it was not fun at all for him. The nurses did a great job, he does not remember anything from one week before the accident to 2 weeks after.

Not a week into the recovery he developed pneumonia. They had to suction his lungs 3 times a day by a procedure called a bronchoscopy. Doing this they literally would paralyze him completely so that there would be no movement, this way they would not damage the lung tissue anymore than necessary. This went on for weeks. About this same time he also developed an illeus, where the bowel sort of kinks around on itself. So the NG tube was reinserted, as far as Kip is concerned NG tubes are the absolute worst!

Kip spent a month in the ICU, fighting many battles. One of the very best days in this long process was day 16 when they were finally able to do a tracheotomy. They had to wait as long as they could so that the chance of infection was less since he had been leaking spinal fluid. To do the tracheotomy posed a new risk of infection that they wanted to avoid as long as possible. To have the tubes out of his mouth was wonderful, now his mouth could at least begin to heal.

January 21 st was the big day, discharged from West Wing ICU, wow we weren’t sure we would ever see that day. He was admitted onto the acute care floor, still needing ventilator support. The biggest hurdle here was getting use to his new surroundings and the new nursing staff. He also continued to deal with a distended abdomen that was very uncomfortable when he would have to put his back brace on. He had to wear a brace for 3 months anytime the head of his bed was above 30 degrees. This was to protect the fractures in his back at T4-6. To our surprise he was discharged from the acute care floor just 5 days after his arrival. He was then admitted to the rehab floor where he spent almost three months.

While on the rehab floor he began his therapy. He worked closely with a Physical Therapist and an Occupational therapist. He was also involved with an art instructor, speech therapist, psychologist, social workers, physicians, nurses and other support staff. During this time he also began his required courses so that he could graduate with his High School class. Thanks to his aunt Becky and a tutor from the district, he completed all of his courses in flying colors. It was truly a blessing in disguise, it took his mind off the monotony of being in the hospital so long.

The trach was finally removed the end of February, what a relief this was. However, once again there was another hurdle to go over. On the 4 th of March he was able to be discharged from the hospital for the evening so that he could attend the State Snow Skiing Award Banquet in Welches. It was so nice to see so many people he had not seen for months. The next morning however, he became very sick. The Dr’s could not figure out what was going on. By Sunday night he had the Trauma Doctors back in his room and by Monday afternoon his life was threatened and he was back in surgery. He had a section of bowel that had strangulated off, so it was basically dead and seeping feces into his abdomen. He had about 4 feet of small intestine removed and found himself back in West Wing ICU and on the ventilator once again! He pulled through one more time. A few days later he was back on the rehab floor going to therapy. A month later, April 15 th, he was discharged from the hospital. At the time of discharge Kip had lost 60 pounds from his muscular frame, he went from 190 pounds down to 129.

Now our new life begins at home! When Kip came home from the hospital Gordy was able to go back to work and I was able to take a leave of absence and stay home with him. He is a C-6 Quad with strong biceps and shoulders. He is lacking triceps which are critical for transfers. He does have wrist extenders, which means he can pull his hand up in one direction. Giving credit to Kip, he has been determined to stay in a manual chair and not go to a power one. Also, he has been determined to do as much as he can. He has been going to therapy every week. Just recently he was at a facility in California called Project Walk which looks at spinal cord injuries in a different light from traditional methods. As Kip says, “it is truly a gym for Quadriplegics”, and yes we are going back down!

To close this I just need to say, what an adventure this has been. A severe spinal cord injury is a demon all its own. None of us ever dreamt we would be going through this, especially Kip. The struggles continue and magnify every day for him in every aspect of his life. He manages to fight through with amazing strength and courage. As a mother I could not be more proud of the man he is, and yet it breaks my heart. At times life seems too hard to handle, and then he pulls through and we pull though. This would not be possible without the prayers, love, and support from all of you. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts, even if we don’t always say it, we are so grateful for all of you.