Man Down (Sunday 29 December 2002)

At around 11:30 this morning Jon and Andy set off from the top of the 7th Heaven chair, aiming for the powder fields on skiers' right. As they left the cat-track they headed for a jump they'd filmed on last year, and after waiting for some other riders to jump they set off. Andy pulled off a nice grab, landed, and came to a halt. Jon set off, leapt into the air, landed successfully, then flew headlong into a boulder field.

Jon turned in panic and began breaking but slid into the rocks, destroyed his board, and was catapulted into a cartwheel which ended when he landed on a rock with a loud scream.

Andy immediately asked if he was hurt, but Jon was very badly winded and couldn't reply. Then he lost consciousness.

Realising all was not well, Andy took off his board and ran back up the hill to the crumpled heap that Jon had become. As Andy removed Jon's snowboard Jon recovered consciousness, only to discover that breathing had become a little harder than usual. After several minutes it became apparent that Jon was not going to be able to ride down, so he and Andy climbed down to the Green Line cat-track while Andy radioed some friends on the lift to request assistance from the Ski Patrol.

Over the next half hour three patrollers arrived to quiz Jon and inspect his damaged chest. They ended up towing him in a blood-wagon to the Solar Coaster chair where Andy, Jon and one of the patrollers downloaded.

The party was met at Blackcomb Base I by Bob, Dom and some more patrollers then driven to the medical centre, where Jon was asked to describe what had happened again then lead to a bed. Eventually a doctor arrived, and after about 3 seconds announced that Jon had broken his ribs. A further pain in Jon's shoulder lead the doctor to believe that there was an internal injury causing a build-up of fluid above the diaphragm.

Jon was given a large shot of morphine, then the testing began. An x-ray confirmed that at least two ribs were broken, and a urine sample confirmed that Jon's kidney was leaking. The doctor seemed quite concerned by this, and suggested that Jon would need to be sent down to Vancouver for repair of the kidney and possible removal of the spleen.

Bob and Dom had gone by this time, leaving Andy watching over Jon. The arrival of the hospital's head radiologist changed the plan, and Jon was sent for an ultrasound scan. To the relief of all concerned, the scan showed that both the spleen and the kidney were OK, and also that Jon's bladder, gall bladder, bowels and pancreas were present and intact.

The doctor told Jon to stay in his bed while an involuntary muscle contraction (protecting the organs below the rib-cage) relaxed and the blood test results were analysed, then at around 20:30 Jon was released, with a prescription for some super-strength pain-killers which required a special triplicate form to be filled in.

Jon is now home, with two broken ribs and a third suspected break which couldn't be confirmed by the x-ray. The hundred days of Justice delivery are now in doubt - Jon has been instructed to take it easy for three weeks, and to refrain from further riding for four. Right now riding is not at the top of Jon's "to do" list, as the pain killers have left him in a rather pleasant state of semi-consciousness...