Help Jonah get back his mojo!

May 8 Update: 
Jonah wanted to update the team that he’s doing well. He had a thoracic spine fusion, stabilizing his T12 vertebrae to the two above/below. He’s been able to walk and has been doing so fairly often. He wanted me to pass along how sincerely grateful he is for the support and help in easing his transition back to “normal”. As of last week he was expecting to be discharged from the hospital soon! 

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On April 26, 2022 Jonah and his friends were backcountry skiing in Valdez Alaska when he was suddenly buried in an avalanche.

 

From Jonah: “Well we were booting up a north east face of a mountain to ski a really cool looking line. When we got to the top we acknowledged that there was a cornice. We made note and stepped back from the ledge and right as we were about to strap in the cornice broke and I flew down the mountain”.

 

‘Flew’ turns out to be a euphemism for falling 1500’ down the mountain that resulted in a broken back, dislocated shoulder and bruised lung. As a result he is having stabilizing surgery to his back in AK before being able to return to Utah. As you can imagine this is going to be an incredible expense for a student.

 

Jonah is set to start his DPT this June at the University of Utah! Let’s come together as a community to make sure his life dream isn’t affected by this scary near miss.

A little about me—I’m a physical therapist at Mountain Valley Therapy in La Grande, OR. I work part-time with Eastern Oregon University in their athletic training room. Jonah worked at our physical therapy clinic for the last two years before moving to Utah and I worked both professionally with him in the clinic and helped his recovery as an athlete.