Please help us support Ellie and her family for her future recovery and medical costs. Ellie has never met a challenge she was intimidated by, and this will be no different. We will continue to share updates as we can.

From Ellie's mom, Jennifer:

On January 23, we were in Pagosa Springs, CO, on a ski trip. Ellie lost control and ran over a ledge and into a tree. She was taken by ambulance to a rural hospital and then flown to Colorado Springs Children’s Hospital (due to weather, they felt like this was the safest location). They did not let me fly with her, so my updates for the next 6(ish) hours were by phone. Our biggest concerns at this point were her brain (she was wearing a helmet), her neck, and a bleeding liver laceration. At one point, we received word from a doctor that “the brain and c-spine looked great and she would bounce back.” A few minutes later, we received word that this information was incorrect and no one was sure where it came from, and she did in fact have an unstable c-spine (fractured neck). The next step would be an MRI and CT scan to tell us more about the spinal cord injury, and they would transfer us to Denver Children’s.

The main things we know for my nurse friends:

1. We’re at Denver Children’s.

2. She is intubated, sedated, and comfortable.

3. She has several fractures of her neck, the biggest concern being a “craniocervical disassociation” that will need surgery. Possibly wait and do surgery on Monday and give her body a chance to stabilize.

4. Her spinal cord has “compression” but is intact (praise God).

5. She has a lower brain injury close to her neck, but they feel like it is minimal and not the biggest concern.

6. Her pupils are reactive, and she will open her eyes when we ask her to.

7. She has 3 broken ribs, a liver laceration (stable and hopeful it will heal on its own without surgery), and an (improving) pneumothorax.

We don’t know what her future or her recovery looks like, and likely won’t have any ideas on this until they wean her sedation, which will 100% be after surgery, whenever we can do that.

The main thing we need is prayers, pray hard for our girl, put her on every prayer chain you know. Within seconds of the accident, we had someone standing over us in prayer, and we know that God is so good.