I know a guy named John. He was a semi-pro mountain bike racer. He's basically quadriplegic now.

[XemaSab]

He was a really active, fit, burly guy who was involved in all kinds of extreme sports.

What happened?

He went skiing.

"OH NOES!" I hear you say.

Before you get too judgmental, listen to the facts.

He didn't wipe out on a nasty black diamond run, he didn't go ass-over-teakettle doing some gnarly stunts on a snowboard, he didn't lose control and hit a tree.

He was at the Badger Pass ski area, which was the closest ski area to his house. He was basically on flat ground, and his feet just went out from under him. He landed on his neck, cracked a vertebra, and it was all over.

He's paralyzed from the waist down, and he has no use of his arms below the elbow.

Accidents happen. :(

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Yes, they do. :^( We can be so darned fragile.

[hlthe2b]

2. Arguably he could have slipped on ice--sans skiing

Yes, indeed accidents happen, at home and while doing the things you love. This could have happened after being rear-ended as one waited in their car at a stoplight...

Sadly, accidents do happen. Life is short. Live it to the max.

[uppityperson]

3. aw dang, accidents happen. Best wishes and healing to him. eom

[NJmaverick]

4. That's sad to hear

[undeterred]

5. I know a guy named Dave, His father threw him into

a lake on a family picnic while they were horsing around. His head hit the bottom and he ended up with 5 compression fractures of his spine. He was not paralyzed, but has lived with chronic pain ever since... the past 25 years. If he had hit bottom just a little differently he might have broken his neck and become paralyzed, or he might not have been hurt at all.

:shrug:

[AlCzervik]

6. that's sad. My uncle drove a motorcycle for years, he's now a quadriplegic, he fell

off a ladder and his neck landed on a rock. Anyhow he's been in his chair for a little over 30 years now.

[Arugula Latte]

9. Wow.

You know, I was under the impression that most quadriplegics don't live much more than 10 or 15 years after their accident (e.g. Christopher Reeve). Do you know if that's a misconception?

[AlCzervik]

13. he's had several bouts with pneumonia and bed sore issues but he's still alive and

alert. He's got a live in aid, my uncle was actually on the job when he was injured so the insurance company has provided the money for his care. I'm almost 42 and his accident happened awhen i was around 11 or so.

[Ganja Ninja]

7. The media really markets dangerous sports to the young.

They make it seem that if you're not out base jumping or rock climbing then you're just not living. I have to wonder what kind of suffering some of these people will be going through in their old age from all the lumps they've taken trying to imitate the crap they see in commercials.

[ddeclue]

10. Post hoc ergo prompter hoc...

No the media is chasing a youth market that they don't really understand.

Young people have always done "dangerous" and stupid things because you don't really realize that you aren't bullet proof for quite some time.. some people never do.

Whether the media glamorized this stuff or not, young people would be doing it. The fact is that young people started doing this stuff and it goes on underground until some marketing executive finally realizes how "hot" it is with they young crowd and only THEN tries to capitalize on it.

Doug D.

[cali]

11. oh for pity's sake. skiing is not this dangerous sport

many here seem determined to paint it as. more kids are paralyzed jumping or diving into pools/lakes/ponds than are paralyzed skiing. And young bodies are pretty damned resiliant.

[maxsolomon]

17. the "paralyzed by diving board" thing is way overblown

when we were redesigning our local swim club, we researched why the insurance rates were so high as to prohibit diving boards. accidents in lifeguarded pools weren't the reason. it was diving off piers into shallow murky lakes.

no one here gets out alive.

[CRF450]

18. I ride on trails and sometimes a motocross track on my dirtbike.

I got more banged up playing soccer and some football at high school than all the falls I've taken riding the dirtbike COMBINED! Its a common misconception that extreme are more dangerous. Well, their are more hazards to deal with, but if your careful and stay within your limits, the likely hood of getting hurt is waaaay down their.

[Ganja Ninja]

19. No not too dangerous, were only talking about this because a woman

is lying on her death bed from a skiing accident.

[XemaSab]

12. Forgot to mention, this guy was 45 at the time of the accident

:P

[Journeyman]

8. My brother slipped on ice, hit his head, and has been quadriplegic for 26 years. . .

he was on his way to get a beer in the local tavern, took a shortcut through an alley, and wasn't found until the bleeding in his head had destroyed large portions of his brain.

We joke at times that he's a poster child for the dangers of drink, but the truth is, it was simply an accident.

Life's very fragile. Enjoy every moment. My brother would be the first to tell you to go skiing, if that's what you want to do. Plenty of people walk to the tavern every day and nothing bad happens. Not even a hangover. Life's like that.

[rox63]

14. I had a coworker for several years who is a paraplegic

He broke his back from a accident while riding his dirt bike, and is paralyzed from the waist down. He was a young guy when it happened, around 30 years old. He and his wife had just become parents for the first time, and had recently purchased their first house. He'd only been at his job for about 6 months when it happened. But his employer (my former employer) held his job open for him, and after about a year, he was able to return to work. I thought that was a very cool thing for the company to do for him. It's a desk job, working at a computer, so he can still do everything it requires. These days, he mostly works from home, coming into the office only one day a week.

[soothsayer]

15. Man, what a decent employer. GREAT employer!

Huzzah!

[KatyaR]

16. The first and only time I went skiing,

it was toward the end of the season and was so icy that I could barely stand up, let alone trust myself to try to actually go down the hill. It was not fun at all, and I finally gave up before I hurt myself, 'cuz I could see it coming.

Skiing is definitely NOT a safe sport. So many people get injured, even those who ski well. My cousin, who was an excellent skier, injured her knees so badly that she had to have surgery on them both.

You need to be a good athlete and have great coordination to ever get on a pair of skis, as far as I'm concerned.

[bridgit]

20. "and it was all over", when younger I ice skated, never had any life altering accident

but am able to attest that when you fall on ice (which is what a ski run is; frozen water) you seem to fall at the speed of light BAM! You're down! Just like that. Falling on snow or ice has a way of making you think, act, and look like a rag doll tumbling through space