On Sunday April 23, David and his wife Nikki were skiing at their favorite ski resort with their buddies. Around 3pm, they was skiing down Styx when David came over a headwall at a fast speed and realized that he was headed for the trees. He caught an edge and knew that he was going to hit the tree hard, so he rotated his body so that his right shoulder would take the brunt of the impact, which saved his life.

David hit an aspen tree at roughly 40mph and his body wrapped around the tree. He was able to crawl a couple of feet before feeling like his heart was going to stop, that’s when he became unresponsive. Nikki and their friend were skiing right behind him and were able to respond immediately. Ski Patrol was dispatched and the process to get him off the mountain started. He was transported to our local hospital where they deemed it necessary to life flight him to a trauma center outside Denver.

David suffered extensive injuries including fracturing ribs 4-9 on his right side in multiple places and several ribs on the left side. His right lung filled with air and blood immediately upon impact requiring the trauma team to place a chest tube. He is in good hands in Denver with trauma experts keeping an eye him and with expert nurses Nikki and Mimi (mom) keeping 24-hour watch.

Dave and Nikki are both in the medical field and will be taking time off work to focus on getting Dave rehabbed and healed. They will be accumulating massive medical bills from the ambulance rides, flight for life and extensive stay and rehab in the hospital. People have asked how they can help, and their request was to have people send them love and hugs; however, donations would be so helpful to help take away some of the real-life stress of bills and unpaid time away from work while they focus on David’s healing.